Rhode Island – Dr. Patricia Flanagan
Updated June 2003

Patricia Flanagan is a pediatrician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence Rhode Island. She is leading an effort in collaboration with Rhode Islands KIDS COUNT to engage multiple stakeholders in policy setting to develop and finance an integrated, comprehensive approach to expanding opportunities and improving the quality of Care for Rhode Island’s most disadvantaged infants and toddlers.

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT is a statewide children’s policy organization dedicated to improving the health, education, economic well-being and safety of Rhode Island’s children. Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, is perhaps the state’s most effective child advocacy voice, and has been on the forefront of successful advocacy for state investments n health care and child care.

A desire to advocate in this arena grew out of Patricia’s 15 years of experience working with teenage parents and their children. She recognized the need for and potential benefits of societal investment in the children of teen parents. She also saw that children of teen parents suffer certain health and educational liabilities chiefly due to poverty. Perhaps leading among these is the risk for school failure. She is now working to bring research to practice with respect to increasing the access of children birth to three to high quality child care and family support programs, such as Early Head Start and other comprehensive family service programs in order to improve school readiness.

Patricia has written of her advocacy work, "I enjoy the clinical work I do. I gain much from providing primary care to young families. But I see policy decisions being made on community, state and national levels that sometimes seem to misunderstand the families I know. I think I have a lot to offer if only I could find an effective voice."