Eliminating disparities in infant mortality: Success and lessons learned from select communities

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that an African American infant living in the United States is still more than twice as likely to die in the first year of life as a white infant. To address disparities in infant mortality, CityMatCH, the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs and the National Healthy Start Association, with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, created the Partnership to Eliminate Disparities in Infant Mortality (PEDIM). The purpose of this partnership is to eliminate racial inequities contributing to infant mortality in U.S. urban areas by establishing an 18-month Action Learning Collaborative (ALC). The first cohort to participate in this ALC included teams from Los Angeles, CA, Aurora, CO, Pinellas County, FL, Chicago, Illinois, Columbus, Ohio, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The second cohort includes teams from Ft. Worth, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana, Boston, Massachusetts, New Haven, Connecticut, and the state of Michigan.

Each of these teams have developed action, evaluation and sustainability plans to carry out selected strategies related to any aspect of addressing racism and infant mortality they deemed appropriate for their community or state. This session will present a summary of the efforts from select ALC teams from the Partnership to Eliminate Disparities in Infant Mortality. In addition this session will provide information on resources available that can assist others in doing similar work in their own communities. Specifically, this workshop will offer useful tools for action planning and program evaluation to address racial inequities that contribute to infant mortality.