FLOURISH joined CityMatCH’s Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes in 2016, beginning a three-year partnership focused on designing and implementing strategies that focus on racial equity in urban areas.
CityMatCH’s Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes brings together city and county health departments, community leaders, and other health organizations to discuss trends in urban health issues across the U.S., and to promote racial equity through strategies and interventions.
As part of the CityMatCH program, FLOURISH will focus on how housing conditions and the lack of quality housing for low-income families impact the health pregnant moms and babies.
“Safe and stable housing is a major concern for families living in the zip codes with the highest rates of infant mortality,” said Rose Anderson-Rice, Chief Program Director of Generate Health. “For example, broken heat and rodent infestations can create serious health risks for babies. Many issues like this often go ignored, so we will be focusing on raising awareness of housing concerns and identifying potential solutions that will help families.”
Representatives from For the Sake of All, United Way, St. Louis City and County health departments, and 11 community leaders joined FLOURISH to develop some immediate solutions and long-term strategies to address housing issues that can lead to infant mortality.
“We were deliberate in including more community members than providers,” said Anderson-Rice. “By including more people who live in the neighborhoods most impacted by infant mortality, their voices carry more weight and authentically express the community’s real challenges. It’s important to have them involved in developing strategies and interventions on the front end.”
Since partnering with CityMatCH, FLOURISH has had the opportunity to collaborate with other organizations trying to address equity and birth outcomes, as well as establish relationships to help other regions across the U.S. improve, including Davidson County, Tennessee; Kent County, Michigan; Ramsey County, Minnesota; Solano County, California; Louisiana Region 7; and portions of New Mexico.
“We’ve had the opportunity to be in the room with other organizations and build networks,” said ShaRhonda Thompson, FLOURISH Cabinet member and St. Louis mom. “We’re pleased to see that FLOURISH is leading other cities in many ways. We’ve already made great progress in establishing root causes for infant mortality in our area and bringing together key people to establish solutions moving forward. Other communities are looking to us as an example.”
As FLOURISH learns best practices from our partner cities, we will look to the St. Louis community to help implement solutions that make long-term improvements for moms and babies. Learn how you can be involved in the St. Louis effort to reduce infant mortality.