Empowering Families of Milwaukee: A community-based approach to improving pregnancy, birth, and infant outcomes

The City of Milwaukee infant mortality rate reveals a startling health disparity. The three year rolling average infant mortality rate in the city was 11.9 per 1,000, between 2002 and 2004. Specifically, the infant mortality rate was 18.2 for Blacks, 7.8 for Hispanics, and 5.6 for Whites. The City of Milwaukee Health Department (MHD) and the State of Wisconsin are working together to mitigate this disparity through Empowering Families of Milwaukee (EFM), a five-year program which began in 2006. EFM is a strengths-based, intensive, comprehensive home visitation program that will serve more than 500 pregnant women, mothers, and children aged 0 to 5 in a high-risk area of the city.

Home visitors develop partnerships with women based on a foundation of mutual respect and trust beginning with care-plan development to link work to their goals. Home visitors empower women to improve fetal and infant outcomes through prenatal health education, infant health education and development screening, and preventative care coordination. Teams of nurses, social workers, and community outreach workers participate in intensive training and receive ongoing technical support and supervision from program administrations, trainers, and supervisors. EFM's collaboration with community-based partners, providers, and government programs facilitates open dialogue to identify and address system gaps and barriers to improving family well-being in Milwaukee.