History

How a children's behavioral health collaborative came into existence in New Hampshire...

In November 2010, as a joint initiative of the Endowment for Health and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Children's Behavioral Health Collaborative came to be. The group studied the strengths and challenges of meeting behavioral health needs of children and youth in New Hampshire. The group learned from assessments of New Hampshire needs and services, national experts, and the experience of other states. Over many months, the Collaborative developed the Children’s Behavioral Health Plan with input from hundreds of stakeholders. The Collaborative sought--and secured--substantial investments to build sustainable best practices, workforce development, service delivery, advocacy, and policy. 

The Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative grew to hundreds of members. The Collaborative included over fifty organizational members and many individual members, including youth, family members, and providers. All of our members are committed to improving the care of New Hampshire children with behavioral health needs. A large number of our members were instrumental in helping implement the Children’s Behavioral Health Plan, which the Collaborative began in March 2013.

The Collaborative chose a national approach that serves as a model for solving tough social problems that cut across sectors, professional groups, and funding silos. The model, called Collective Impact, requires a coalition with a common vision, continuous communications, shared activities, and a host organization to serve as the glue. In 2013, the Collaborative chose New Futures, a noprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to improving the health and wellness of all Granite Staters, as its host.

Member organizations of our original Steering Committee were:

Endowment for Health 
Children’s Alliance of New Hampshire
New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
New Hampshire Department of Education
The National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire 
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services 
Granite State Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health

These organizations continue to play leadership roles in the transforming the system of care. Over the past few years, the Collaborative has grown and transformed in memebership and successfully promoted comprehensive state-level policy change. In light of these system-wide improvements, the CBHC Steering Committee memebers redesigned the Collaborative's operating structure to be more effective and in line with the System of Care values. The System of Care Advisory Council has replaced the CBHC Steering Committee to provider leadership and coordination across the System of Care.