Purpose: to create a more effective and meaningful process for integrating community and constituent experiences.

Objectives :

• Increase FSSA's participation in community forums across Indiana
• Streamline processes for engaging constituents in agency planning
• Build and communicate strategy around constituent experiences
• Increase partnerships with community-based organizations

Purpose: to ensure programs are developed and modified to support the needs of FSSA constituents, especially those facing multiple barriers.
Objectives:

• Improve knowledge of FSSA programs and information about key service populations
• Increase ability of program staff to identify and address gaps in service provision
• Better communicate unmet needs to stakeholders continuously and during the legislative session
• Address state-level policy barriers to service provision and wellbeing for FSSA constituents

Purpose: to ensure agency staff understand the range of barriers and needs of FSSA constituents; how to address those needs; and to attract and retain staff who have lived expertise.

Objectives:

• Improve retention and recruitment of diverse staff members who represent service population
• Increase staff knowledge about concepts of social risk factors among FSSA staff
• Increase staff knowledge about high-risk populations
• Support transparency for complaints and employee experiences
• Reduce staff perceptions of division-level silos across FSSA

Purpose: to support creation, assessment, and progress toward goals that reduce barriers for FSSA constituents and staff.

Objectives:

• Understand trends in employee perceptions about equity and social needs
• Communicate best practices for effective data management and collection for FSSA constituents
• Provide continual feedback about effectiveness of equitable practices throughout FSSA
• Understand opportunities for improvement in leadership, management, and program effectiveness related to health equity

The office has led several projects that reflect our aim, including:

• Agency-wide OHO teams and projects
• Alternative text formats training
• Adverse Concerns and Incidents Reporting System
• Americans with Disabilities Act resources
• Cultural awareness calendar resources
• Employee resource groups
• HealthyOpportunitiesIN.com
• Hoosier Health and Well-being Atlas
• March 2024 All Staff: OHO Listening Sessions Presentation

Kory Carey, Ph. D.

In addition to her duties as Chief Health Equity and ADA Officer, Dr. Carey serves as director of FSSA’s Office of Healthy Opportunities. Dr. Carey provides leadership in the promotion of health equity to build metrics for agency accountability while ensuring agency adherence to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Her work aims to uphold the agency mission by addressing social determinants of health for Hoosiers, reducing barriers for service constituents, and designing and implementing socially equitable policies and programs across the agency.

Dawn Sanford, MSW

Dawn leads agency-wide strategy related to social determinants of health within FSSA programs by working with internal staff, other state agencies, and external partners. Dawn also supports community engagement and outreach efforts to identify community needs and opportunities for policy and programmatic change across FSSA divisions. She also assesses and informs strategies about FSSA staff training needs related to equity, cultural competency, social determinants of health and health equity.

Megan Lisch, MPH

Megan works within FSSA’s Office of Healthy Opportunities to assess division-level policies and programs for equitable processes and constituent and staff experiences. She engages agency partners, FSSA divisions, subject matter experts and external stakeholders to inform ongoing agency strategies related to health equity.

Mandy (Bagwell) Blaise, JD

Mandy coordinates FSSA efforts to ensure people with disabilities have equal access to services, programs and activities provided by state and local government. She also investigates any complaints for qualified individuals with disabilities about services, programs and activities provided by FSSA to ensure agency compliance with state and federal disability laws. requirements.

Karla Camacho-Reyes, MPA

Karla provides oversight and project management for high-visibility projects on behalf of FSSA's Chief Health Equity and ADA Officer. She establishes objectives, implementation plans, and dissemination strategies for OHO initiatives. Karla also works across OHO teams, FSSA divisions, agency partners and external stakeholders to develop recommendations for FSSA workforce development.

If your team would like to engage with OHO, please complete our consultation tool form to help us fully understand the scope of your request ahead of setting up a consultation meeting. Our team will review the form and respond within 5–7 business days to let you know if the request is feasible and provide options for scheduling an initial 30-minute consultation meeting.

Our team provides FSSA staff insight on how they should consider health equity in their day-to-day work, transparently communicate trends about employee experiences, reduce division-level silos across FSSA, and assist in skill building activities for staff development. Some of these activities include:

• Subject matter expertise: policy review, presentations, trainings, recommendations, creating/implementing evaluation tools
• Planning: creating processes/guidance docs for quality improvement, project timeline and strategic planning
• Feedback and facilitation: community outreach support, listening sessions, staff feedback, and vendor, member, and stakeholder engagement
• ADA compliance: creating ADA and accessibility guidelines, creating and compiling educational materials for FSSA staff, and engaging staff and constituents in ADA efforts

When OHO engages with your team, we request:

• Staff engagement from your team. Someone from your team must be available to help lead project efforts and be responsive to OHO inquiries. This includes responding to emails in a timely manner (2–5 business days), participation in meetings, completion of action items, and sharing pertinent information and supplemental documents.
• Collaborative engagement with our staff. In engaging OHO staff, remember to include the appropriate OHO staff member(s) in emails, meetings, and other communications associated with the request. Please note federal, state, and local laws for ADA compliance may apply when planning collaborative efforts.
• Additional support for our office. This can include referring OHO to others or offering resources. For example, you could connect OHO staff with key stakeholders not currently in our network, act as sponsor for joint initiatives and OHO activities, and provide invitations to spaces where OHO expertise and engagement could help streamline efforts. Other indirect support can include resource/information sharing, funding for project/admin costs, in-kind support (e.g., internship assignments for our office, etc.).
• Appropriate credit and recognition. When presenting on joint efforts, please attribute OHO and our role in the work. Our logo and information should be displayed in deliverables and presentations if our team is a contributor.

You can stay in touch with OHO and our projects by reaching out to healthyopportunities@fssa.in.gov for more information or by requesting access to our FSSA Office of Healthy Opportunities SharePoint page.

• October -  Domestic Violence Awareness Month
• September - Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month
• August - Workplace Bullying Awareness
• July - Celebrating National Disability Independence Day
• June - Juneteenth
• May - Mental Health Awareness Month
• April - April is Deaf History Month
• March - Indiana women who tell “our stories”
• February - Celebrate Black History Month and pump up the JAMS with FSSA’s new employee resource group
• January
  • Maternal Health Awareness Month
  • Holocaust Memorial Day

• January - National Poverty in America Awareness Month
• February - Celebrate Black History Month
• March - Iconic women in Indiana history
• April - Highlighting early childhood initiatives in Indiana
• May - Mental Health Awareness Month
• June - Pride Month
• July - Immigrant and Refugee Awareness
• August - Senior Hoosiers: Thriving past 65
• September - Hispanic Heritage Month
• October - National Disability Employment Awareness Month
• November -  November is National Native American Heritage Month
• December - Celebrating religious freedom and diversity in America

• February - Happy Black History Month!