What Makes a Best Babies Zone? Evaluating a Multi-sector, Place Based Initiative

The Best Babies Zone is a three year pilot initiative, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, with the goal of reducing infant mortality using a place-based, multi-sector approach.  The Best Babies Zone works in neighborhoods across three U.S. cities (Cincinnati, Ohio; Oakland, California; and New Orleans, Louisiana), in coordination with a backbone organization at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, to reach this goal and to ultimately achieve community transformation so that every child in the zone is born healthy and into a thriving community.  This session will highlight the evaluation of the Best Babies Zone, focusing on the specific methods employed to evaluate our place-based, multi-sector work, and sharing some of the preliminary data from our early learning interviews and community initiative survey.  We will reflect on some of the challenges encountered during the design and implementation of the evaluation and how we overcame them.   We will also present some of the strengths of employing a place-based, multi-sector approach to address infant mortality and community transformation.