Baby Steps: Learning from evaluating the place-based, cross-sector work of the Best Babies Zone Initiative

The Best Babies Zone Initiative is a pilot project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, aims to improve birth outcomes and reduce infant mortality through a place-based, multi-sector approach. Led by a team at the U.C. Berkeley School of Public Health, the BBZ Initiative works in 3 neighborhoods across the U.S.- Cincinnati, Ohio (Price Hill); Oakland, California (Castlemont); and New Orleans, Louisiana (Hollygrove).   Each site collaborates with resident leaders and organizational partners from the economic development, early care and education, community systems and health sectors to cultivate and build local leadership and social cohesion to improve community conditions and create communities where every child is born healthy and into communities that enable them to thrive and reach their full potential.

Harder & Co. Community Research has served as the outside evaluator for the BBZ Initiative since 2013. Our presentation will highlight the initiative-level findings from the early stages of this developmental evaluation.  We document the importance of the initial planning and relationship building phase, and also share the evaluation results from the community initiative survey, site interviews, and neighborhood and health indicators from secondary sources to track community changes over time, and to add context and allow for comparison in our evaluation summary.  Reflecting on these data, we will discuss how these evaluation findings are helping to inform the next steps and strategy adjustments as the Best Babies Zone Initiative moves into its 4^th year and contemplates bringing on new zones.