Expanding Innovation through Networks: The Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) Project
Marian F. Earls · North Carolina Medical Journal · 2009
he North Carolina Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) Project began in 2000 with a grant from the Commonwealth Fund.North Carolina was one of four states that received a grant after responding to the request for proposal (RFP) sent to state Medicaid agencies to develop and enhance a program to provide child development services.Utilizing the infrastructure of the Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) networks (then called Access II/III), the NC ABCD Project began as a quality improvement initiative, which was piloted in one network and then rapidly expanded to networks covering 11 counties by the third year of the grant, and, in the years since, has encompassed the entire state. North Carolina ABCD HistoryThe project developed a "best practice" comprehensive community model that had two components: