Markeshia Ricks Photo
The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s Healthy Start Program celebrated 19 years of service to the women and babies of the city, and a $5.4 million grant that will help it continue its work through 2019.
Kenya Corley (pictured) is one of New Haven Healthy Start’s success stories. So is her young son George Jr. She and little Georgie spoke to the crowd that gathered at the Omni New Haven Hotel Thursday evening to celebrate the grant, and the work that the program has done over the years. She said New Haven Healthy Start “has its finger on the pulse of the needs” of families and she is “excited that it will be around another five years.”
New Haven Healthy Start, which coordinates systems of care for women, children and families in New Haven to ensure healthy birth outcomes, was among 87 programs across the nation to successfully compete for a total of $65 million from the federal government to reduce high infant mortality rates and improve maternal care in high risk communities. The grant came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Community Foundation President and CEO Will Ginsberg said it provides a great opportunity to do more to eliminate the terrible disparities in health outcomes for women of color when compared to their white counterparts in New Haven. Black women in the city have the highest rates of infant mortality and babies born at low birth weight. Black and Hispanic women in the city also are less likely than their White counterparts to have adequate prenatal care. “We look forward to what we can achieve in the next five years.”
Natasha Ray, consortia coordinator for New Haven Healthy Start (pictured with Program Director Kenn Harris), said over the next five years the grant will allow for more collective impact and increased accountability for how families are served in the community.
It is absolutely critical to make further inroads into the health outcomes of black and brown babies - they have the highest incidents of death in Connecticut. In fact, according to the March of Dimes, three times as many black babies die as white babies. Many of these deaths are preventable. Congrats on the grant and three cheers to saving the little ones.