The deadline for submitting an email indicating your interest in participating has been extended to Monday, April 23rd, 2012

In an effort to maximize SAMHSA’s time-limited opportunity to support a fixed number of States, only organizations in the 8 States listed here are eligible. These 8 States were chosen to target States with existing capacity in behavioral health stakeholder leadership.  These States represent the diversity of the United States while acknowledging that only a limited number of States are engaged in health insurance exchange establishment activities.

Eligible States

•  Arizona, California, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont.

Your organization must have its primary base of activity in one of these states in order for you to participate.

Overview of Learning Collaborative Activities:
The purpose of the Health Reform Innovations Learning Collaborative is to promote statewide coalition building among both state mental health and substance use stakeholder organizations. Within this innovative Learning Collaborative, state mental health and substance use stakeholder organizations are encouraged to work together to understand and educate their community members on how health care reform is implemented within states.  The goal is to create and disseminate state-specific educational materials on health reform topics such as Essential Health Benefits and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act.  Special attention will be given to information relevant to racial and ethnic minorities, and other vulnerable communities who use or deliver mental health and substance use disorder services. 

As a member of the state coalition, each organization will be asked to engage in the coalition building process and effectively partner with the other members.  Coalition organizations commit to participating in the series of webinars, engage with any discussion or reading material, and to making a good faith effort to support events planned by each state’s Coalition Coordinating Center.

Based on the responses to this invitation, SAMHSA will select an organization(s) within each state to serve as the Coalition Coordinating Center.  The Coalition Coordinating Centers will receive additional customized technical assistance from national health reform experts to foster the statewide coalition of stakeholders.  Theses Coordinating Centers will develop and disseminate state-specific resource materials to state coalition organizations. Although these Coalition Coordinating Centers will not receive any financial award, the state Centers will have access to a “coach” who will work with them throughout the process and plan a 1-day intensive technical assistance session at the Coalition Coordinating Center site.  These coaches will work with the Centers to develop a state Action Plan and connect state organizations with national experts.  Additionally, the Coalition Coordinating Centers will be eligible to participate in national Learning Collaborative tele-conference meetings to foster state-to-state learning and peer-to-peer connections.