Expanding Statewide Developmental Screening and Monitoring through Deputy Ambassador Network

December 18, 2017

Our AMCHP State Systems grant has identified "LTSAE Deputy Ambassadors" from across the state to assist the State Ambassadors in disseminating information about LTSAE in order to support the use of these resources as a component of Child Find and parent supported developmental monitoring. During our first two years of this grant, we have recruited thirty "Deputy Ambassadors" canvasing the entire state of California. We have worked with the California Autism Professional Training and Information Network (CAPTAIN), which is an existing statewide network of trainers from our education system, developmental disabilities (Part C) system and family resource centers.

At the annual CAPTAIN Summits, we recruited trainers who were interested in learning about LTSAE and who committed to incorporating LTSAE resources into their local training. In addition, these Deputy Ambassadors worked within their regions to develop a customized version of the Milestones Brochure, which contains local resource and referral information. To date we have developed regional brochures for each of the seventeen CAPTAIN Regions in our state and have disseminated more than 10,000 paper copies of the brochures. In addition, we have developed a web-based version that has links to the local resources that are posted on the CAPTAIN Website.

Recently we learned that we are eligible for an additional year of funding to support our maintenance of the State Systems Grant work. We hope to recruit new/additional deputy ambassadors and develop Spanish Language Versions of the regional brochures.