VIEWS FROM THE FIELD

Beyond the Rankings: What Four Decades of KIDS COUNT Have Taught Me About Why Data Matter

Florencia Gutiérrez, Senior Research Associate, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

For more than three decades, through the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® project, decisionmakers and communities have had access to reliable national, state, and local data to improve outcomes for all children, young people, and families in this country. KIDS COUNT comprises the foundation's national KIDS COUNT publications—the annual KIDS COUNT Data Book and periodic reports such as Race for Results; the KIDS COUNT Data Center, a resource for year-round national, state, and local data; and the KIDS COUNT Network of state-based partner organizations that help policymakers, advocates, journalists, and community leaders understand and use data to make informed decisions.

VIEWS FROM THE FIELD

​​​Post-Overdose Response Teams: A Community-Based Approach to Public Safety

April Bragg, Senior Program & Strategy Officer, Dogwood Health Trust
Alison Sutter, Senior Program Officer, Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts

Recent changes in the federal policy landscape have created new questions for communities working to address substance use disorder (SUD), mental health needs, and housing instability. In this evolving environment, philanthropy, in collaboration with community-based organizations and local governments, has an important role to play in supporting evidence-based responses to overdose and mental health emergencies that improve access to care, strengthen community wellbeing, and uplift public health while avoiding unnecessary criminal legal outcomes.

VIEWS FROM THE FIELD

​​Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy: Countering Bias and Promoting Care

​​​​​Miriam Tardif-Douglin, Associate Director, Program Evaluation, North Carolina Healthcare Foundation

​​​Most pregnancy-related deaths in North Carolina are preventable. Yet mental health conditions, including overdose and suicide, remain the leading cause of pregnancy-related death. For health care leaders, that reality demands a closer look at how we identify, treat, and support pregnant and postpartum patients with opioid use disorder.

VIEWS FROM THE FIELD

Preventing Domestic Violence by Reaching People Who Cause Harm

Jennifer Rosenkranz, Senior Program Director, Domestic Violence, Michael Reese Health Trust
Interviewer: Maya Schane, Grantmakers In Health

Grantmakers In Health's Maya Schane spoke with Jennifer Rosenkranz of the Michael Reese Health Trust in Chicago, Illinois, about the Trust's recently published research, People Who Cause Harm: Policies, Funding, and Strategies in Cook County.

The research involved a landscape scan of Cook County, Illinois' policies, funding, and services for people who cause harm with a goal of engaging the stakeholders and providers doing this work as well as survivors and those who receive services to identify barriers, challenges, and strengths of domestic violence prevention programs. The research examined Partner Abuse Intervention Programs (PAIP) in particular, a standard intervention for people who cause harm that is overseen by the Illinois Department of Human Services.

VIEWS FROM THE FIELD

​The Voters Health Care Reaches

Lizet Ocampo, Executive Director, Vot-ER
Daniel E. Dawes, Author, The Political Determinants of Health; Founding Dean, Meharry Medical College School of Global Health; Vot-ER Advisor

August marks Civic Health Month, a time to showcase the link between voting and health. It arrives this year against a difficult backdrop. The enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that helped millions afford coverage expired at the end of 2025, and federal cuts to Medicaid are reshaping who can get care and how. The ACA was among the hardest-won health equity victories in a century, and its erosion is a reminder that policy gains are never permanent. They are defended, or lost, depending on who shows up to vote.