As an eclectic group of concerned people representing a variety of 
community agencies, our task force has survived many interesting 
challenges since we started meeting about 6 years ago. In 1995, it came 
to our attention that the Idaho legislature was considering some 
legislation that would adversely affect children in our state. Word 
spread rapidly through the community that we should get organized and do 
something about it. 

Inspired by Pediatrician Dr. Roger Boe and Larraine Clayton, a regional 
Early Intervention Specialist, we banded together, wrote a mission 
statement, and rallied all forces together to fight the cause for 
children and their special needs. The legislation was fortunately ill 
fated. However, our group wasn't. We kept meeting together in a 
community effort to address critical issues regarding the health and 
development of young children. We called our group the Children's 
Special Health Program (abbreviated CSHP) task force. 

I must say the meetings got pretty entertaining sometimes with people 
discussing loudly, or perhaps yelling is a better word, their points of 
view. Through a series of developments, we met Adrienne Akers who 
encouraged us to collaborate with them as one of the four communities to 
be included in the Opening Doors into Rural Communities project. This 
provided us with some financial means and the facilitative support to 
confront our challenges head on. 

Like Augusta, Maine, we too chose to focus on coordinating early 
intervention with the medical home. I should let you know that this was 
THE thorniest issue we could have addressed and I know that the Opening 
Doors staff wondered if our task force would ever survive. Luckily, the 
parents on our Task Force offered to deal head on with several of those 
thorny issues themselves. The parents wrote letters and invited their 
own pediatricians to become involved with the task force, and this, 
ultimately, changed the dynamics of our task force. 

So what are our accomplishments so far? They are many, but the biggest 
one is that we are still together—fighting those elephants in the room 
that sometimes we all want to ignore. Specifically, our three biggest 
achievements include: 

* Implementing a community-wide screening clinic, 
* Providing statewide inservice training on the concept of the medical home, and 
* Establishing a training program for family practice residents in the 
areas of child development and special needs. 

We have been recognized for our achievements by winning the Community 
Can Award last year. We were honored in Washington, D.C., on Capital 
Hill and then we returned home to be honored once again by our 
Congressman, Mayor, and community leaders at an awards ceremony. 
Receiving the Communities Can award has also provided ongoing leadership 
training for several members of our Task Force in Washington D.C. & 
Santa Fe, New Mexico.