Bibb County Children Benefit as Partners Join to Improve Health Services
Bibb County is one of the first, and perhaps only, counties in the United States to have achieved 100% health insurance coverage for children. The College of Community Health Sciences at UA is partner in an historic joint effort to increase health insurance coverage for children through community action. The University of Alabama (College of Community Health Sciences, Department of Behavioral and Community Medicine) joined the Bibb County Child Caring Foundation, along with other partners--the Alabama Child Caring Foundation (of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama) and the Rural Alabama Health Alliance--to improve health services for children in Bibb County by increasing participation in health insurance plans.
The Bibb County Child Caring Initiative (BCCCI) has brought together all sectors of the community to improve child health care. Its mission: to assure that every child in the community is enrolled in a health insurance program, receives medical care and health information appropriate to age, and develops expectations about personal health and prevention that will carry over to siblings.

Begun in 1995, it is the first program known to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama to place insurance program policy in the hands of local community members. BCCCI also represents a collaborative effort between the Bibb County community, the Rural Alabama Health Alliance, the College of Community Health Sciences, the Capstone College of Nursing, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama.

Together, these partners are working to assure Alabama's children of a bright, healthy future. At the heart of the Child Caring Initiative is a community-centered approach to health and well-being. BCCCI is founded on the idea that the strength of the local community must be engaged to successfully lead interested institutional partners in funding, implementing, and evaluating a lasting and effective community endeavor.

An archive containing information that may be useful to other communities and community health workers has been compiled as part of this project. The archive includes data assessing child insurance needs in the community, historical information about program development, and health assessment data. The evaluation team from the UA College of Community Health Sciences maintains this archive in partnership with the BCCCI Policy Committee.

For more information, contact: Tracy Carter, UA College of Human Environmental Sciences, (205) 348-9641 or tpalmer@ches.ua.edu
"Inherent in the endeavors is the collaborative nature necessary to carry out the Child Caring activities. Our success is largely the result of much hard work, dedication and the careful leadership of our community and our partners."

...a letter co-signed by partner representatives Alesa Judd, Ph.D., Bibb County Chairman; Garry Magouirk, MD, Rural Alabama Health Alliance; Albert Rohling, Alabama Child Caring Foundation; and John Wheat, MD, MPH, University of Alabama...
(speaking to those who wish to attempt similar undertakings in their own communities)

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