2024 VOA National Conference Recap

The 2024 VOA National Conference is complete! The VOADV team had a busy and productive few days in National Harbor, MD – here are some of the highlights!

Team members Daniel Smith and Jamal Miles were commissioned as ministers, while Tamara Davis was ordained as a minister.

VOADV board member Maury Reiter won the 2024 Governance Innovator Award.

COO Kathy White-Thomas spoke on the panel Navigating Your Leadership Journey: A Female Perspective.

Members of the team supported Volunteers of America – Greater New York by attending their panel Identifying and Treating Traumatic Brain Injury Caused by Domestic Violence.

Health Equity Challenge Grant Recipient VOA Greater New York (VOAGNY) will share progress on their winning proposal. Learn how VOAGNY used VOA’s Health Equity Framework and a $100,000 Health Equity Challenge Grant from the National Office to further their work with domestic violence survivors. Participants will walk away with practical examples of putting health equity theory into practice to expand advocacy and communication and enhance monitoring and evaluation of programs to improve services.

Alison Accettola and Alexis Degan began their journey with the VOA leadership program KeyMakers.

Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania presented the panel We Can Respond to the Nation’s Maternal Health Crisis.

The maternal health crisis across the country is dire. For black women, the crisis is three times worse. While the rates of maternal morbidity and mortality continue to rise, hospitals and health centers are shutting down maternal health units. The response to this crisis demands community-based solutions to ensure social and emotional support and health care meet people where they are. Over the past year, VOA Pennsylvania grew its small 20-year-old in-home visitation model, supported by two part-time perinatal counselors in one county to now serving seven counties with a network of maternal community health staff who receive oversight and support from a registered nurse. We have expanded focus to support women, caregivers, siblings, and other family members with services and resources centered around addressing social determinants of health. During this workshop, we will share ways you can advocate for and directly serve women and their families during and after pregnancy. We will specifically share how we leveraged our partnerships with Medicaid managed care organizations to strengthen our funding streams and support communities with poor maternal health outcomes or those deemed maternal health deserts due to few accessible health care options.

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