Year in Review: 2024

As we approach the new year, we get to reflect on how we have grown since 2024 began.

Throughout the year, we welcomed nearly 18 new staff members, three new programs, and cultivated more partnerships with aligned community organizations. FAIR project referrals have increased exponentially in the past several months, and we have supported a record number of nursing student placements within NNCC.

The items below capture just a few highlights from 2024. As we enter 2025, we aim to reach more families with high-quality services, advance policies that support the nursing workforce and the communities we serve, and foster our own workforce to ensure they have what they need to optimize the growth that we experienced in this past year.

Advocacy Wins of the Year

This year, we had the opportunity to participate with Philadelphia’s Shared Safety Coordinating Council in the development of trauma-informed emergency room discharge paperwork for people who were seen for intimate partner violence-related ailments and injuries. This document is currently being translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Khmer, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Tagalog, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. When the translation is completed, we will be sharing the new discharge paperwork with Philadelphia healthcare centers and hospitals. 

In August, the Department of Education introduced new clarifying Title IX language, which included protections for lactation. The Coalition for Lactation-Friendly Schools responded by creating a toolkit for schools to become lactation friendly – to guide school administrators through finding and making space and accommodations for parenting students to pump milk. The Coalition for Lactation-Friendly Schools will publish, print, and distribute this toolkit to numerous schools throughout Pennsylvania.

Legislative Visits

This year, we hosted several legislators in our office. Senator Bob Casey’s staff joined us to discuss everything surrounding home visiting - in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania. During their visit, they heard from nurse home visitors and their clients about their time in home visiting programs, talked about the challenges people face navigating complex and challenging systems, and what we look for in the future of home visiting. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier joined NNCC and partnering organizations to discuss housing in Philadelphia.

NTTAP and Accreditation

The National Nurse-Led Care Consortium is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. In 2024, we provided nursing continuing professional development credits for 22 courses or course series. We also hosted 31 trainings and saw 3,107 participants over the year.

PA-NWC Brand Change

The Pennsylvania Nursing Workforce Coalition, formerly known as the Pennsylvania Action Coalition, has a new 5-year strategic plan. This plan includes a brand refresh - a different name but the same vision and mission - to advance a nursing workforce that will lead healthcare transformation by cultivating strategic partnerships with diverse populations and organizations. Read more here.

New Deputy Executive Director

Erin Graham, DNP, CRNP, FNP-BC, IBCLC, has been appointed as the first-ever Deputy Executive Director at the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC), a newly established leadership role designed to strengthen NNCC’s mission of advancing health equity and supporting community well-being through quality, compassionate, and collaborative nurse-led care.

Erin’s history within NNCC as a Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) Nurse Home Visitor, NFP Supervisor, and Senior Director of Healthcare Integration has provided her with comprehensive experience in both direct service and administration. Her journey with NNCC reflects a deep commitment to public health and a strategic vision for expanding access to essential services. Read more about her new role here.

Giving Tuesday

The Family Advocacy and Integrated Resources (FAIR) Project is an innovative partnership that combines civil legal aid services and concrete needs assistance with maternal and child health home visiting programs. The goal is to provide families with comprehensive support that addresses their immediate needs and long-term well-being, ensuring children and parents thrive together.

This year, we had a Giving Tuesday campaign to raise funds for the Family Support Fund - which is a critical resource designed to address urgent, concrete needs that cannot be met through other funding sources. And the campaign isn’t over yet, you can still donate to the fund and help provide urgent financial relief to Philadelphia Families. You can read more about the FAIR Project and Fund here.

Nurse Home Visiting Programs

This year, our two nurse home visiting programs, Nurse-Family Partnership and Mabel Morris, served 742 families in total and conducted around 6,500 visits. This means that every two weeks, 677 families in Philadelphia met with their nurse home visitors to create and work on their goals - whether in development, health, education, or economic self-sufficiency. 

Every month, families in the program also have the opportunity to participate in events hosted by NNCC and their program. With 18 events to attend through the year, ranging from learning about healthy food with The Food Trust to celebrating the end of the year with Mister John’s Music, families

Throughout the year, our families could also participate in advocacy opportunities. They joined us at the National Home Visiting Summit in Washington, D.C., and spoke in front of legislators in Pennsylvania and around the nation about the programs and how they have helped shape their lives.

Program Transitions

This year, NNCC welcomed two new programs transitioning from other organizations: the Philly-MontCo Family Center (formerly with Carson’s Valley Children Aid) and the Post-Partum Visit Program (formerly with the Visiting Nurses Association).

The Philly MontCo Family Center serves approximately 200 pregnant and parenting families per year through the Parents-as-Teachers curriculum in the Norristown area and north Philadelphia. The Post-Partum Visit Program connects individuals who have missed their six-week post-partum appointment with a registered nurse or nurse midwife to reconnect them with care during this critical period.

Both programs expand NNCC’s ability to support pregnant and parenting families in Philadelphia and within Pennsylvania with support and tools to advance their goals and improve their health and well-being.

AmeriCorps

NNCC’s AmeriCorps programs place members at organizations across Philadelphia and Pennsylvania that work to eradicate poverty through direct community engagement and program management. These programs start in the summer and end the following summer. 

The AmeriCorps Nursing Fellowship Program places members at community-based primary care and public health organizations. For the 2023-2024 program year, we had 14 members, and for the 2024-2025 program year, we have 11 members.

We also have the AmeriCorps VISTA Program, where members serve for one year at nonprofit organizations and public agencies. For the 2023-2024 program year, we had 3 members, and for the 2024-2025 program year, we have 7 members. You can read about these programs and their members here.