Advocate for Healthy Moms, Babies and Families

Click the links below to find out how you can be an advocate for healthy moms, babies and families, and resources you can use in your advocacy efforts. Healthy Start thanks you for your time, interest and concern for our community!

2011 Awareness Events Calendar
A Healthy Baby Begins with You Campaign
Adoption: Help Promote Adoption in Florida
Community Action Tools

2011 Awareness Events Calendar

Click here to view the 2011 Awareness Events Calendar to find events of importance to members of our community and to see how you can bring awareness of Healthy Start services to the celebrations for some of these events.

A Healthy Baby Begins with You Campaign

Let's face it! Infant mortality rates among African American babies are twice as high as those of the general population. But many of the causes of infant mortality are preventable and A Healthy Baby Begins with You. In May 2007, the Office of Minority Health (OMH), of the Department of Health and Human Services launched A Healthy Baby Begins with You - a national campaign to raise awareness about infant mortality with an emphasis on the African American community - as one of our efforts to end health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. Click the links below to learn more and find resources:

Crisis in the Crib: Saving our Babies Video
Crisis in the Crib: The Role of Men
General information and video address from campaign spokesperson, Tonya Lee
Host an Event
Involved Organizations
Media Kit
Multimedia Resources

Every Woman Southeast - Advocated for the Wellbeing of Women in the South Eastern United States

Every Woman Southeast is a coalition of leaders and agencies from eight states working together to build a multi-state, multi-layered partnership to improve the health of women and infants in the south.  Click here to sign up for their newsletter.

Healthy Families Florida: A Proven Solution!

The Healthy Families Florida Program is a proven solution for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. With increasingly limited resources, it is critical that Florida prioritize funding for programs and services that yield the greatest possible return for our economic future. Healthy Families Florida is a wise investment for today’s children and families and tomorrow’s economic security. Child abuse and neglect disrupts a child’s brain architecture, damaging the developing brain and leading to problems in learning and behavior and increased susceptibility to physical and mental illness over time. It may also perpetuate a generational cycle of abuse.

Research and experience indicate that it can cost Florida taxpayers $64,377 a year to care for an abused or neglected child.6 This estimate is conservative and includes only costs for child welfare services, hospitalization, special education and juvenile justice. Healthy Families prevents child abuse and neglect for $1,671 a year per child, saving taxpayers millions of dollars. To read more, click here. Also, click the links below for more information and resources regarding this program:

Healthy Families Program Overview
Healthy Families Talking Points
Healthy Families Statistics
Catholic Conference Letter
Florida Sheriff's Letter
Florida Sheriff's Position Paper

Community Action Tools!

New - Brain Hero Video
Following a two-year collaboration with the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California to develop and test new ways of communicating the science of early childhood development, the Center on the Developing Child has released the collaboration’s first product, “Brain Hero.” The three-minute video depicts how actions by a range of people in the family and community can affect a child’s development. Based loosely on such games as "Guitar Hero," "SimCity," and "The Game of Life," the video adapts the visual sensibility of interactive game models to a video format and portrays how actions taken by parents, teachers, policymakers, and others can influence life outcomes for both the child and the surrounding community.

Infant Mortality Awareness Campaign

The National Healthy Start Association (NHSA) is committed to improving birth rates in this country. As a nation wide membership association, NHSA primarily serves the federally funded Healthy Start Projects in 38 states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The mission of NHSA is to promote the development of community-based maternal and child health programs, particularly those addressing the issues of infant mortality, low birth weight and racial disparities in perinatal outcomes. As part of its mission, NHSA supports the expansion of a wide range of activities and efforts that are rooted in the community and actively involve community residents in their design and implementation. The Association’s primary purpose is to expand the capacity of community-based maternal and child health (MCH) and Infant mortality preventive health services, thereby ensuring that all families have access to a continuum of affordable quality health care and related services. NHSA’s purpose is to be an effective advocate in policies and programs that improve the health status of women, infants and families and strengthen the capacity of Healthy Start programs and community-based MCH organizations nationwide. There are 104 Healthy Start projects throughout the nation.

To learn more about the Infant Mortality Awareness Campaign, click here. To download the National Healthy Start Infant Mortality Awareness toolkit with information on how you can become an Infant Mortality Awareness Advocate, click here. To download Network of Home Visitation and Family Support Services white paper, click here.

Martin Luther King, Jr Live the Dream License Plate

Need to update your car license plate? Order a Martin Luther King, Jr. Live the Dream license plate. The funds generated from the sale of the Live the Dream specialty license plate are distributed to the Dream Foundation to be used in the following manner:

• 25% of the funds is distributed equally among the sickle cell organizations that are Florida members of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America, Inc. for programs that provide research, care and treatment for Sickle Cell Disease;
• 25% goes to the March of Dimes, Florida Chapter, for programs and services that improve the health of babies through the prevention of birth defects and infant mortality;
• 10% goes to the Florida Association of Healthy Start Coalitions, to decrease racial disparity in infant mortality and to increase healthy birth outcomes. Funding is used by local Healthy Start Coalitions to provide services and increase screening rates for high-risk pregnant women, children under 4 years of age, and women of childbearing age;
• and 10% goes to the Community Partnership for Homeless, Inc. for programs that provide relief from poverty, hunger, and homelessness.

Perinatal HIV AIDS Prevention Community Site on Facebook

Log into Facebook. Then click here to find the Perinatal HIV AIDS Prevention Community. Become a fan or list your Perinatal HIV AIDS Prevention event or program.

Prematurity Awareness-Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait!

November is Prematurity Awareness Month. According to studies, a growing number of babies are delivered between 37 and 39 weeks. Many of these births occur as a result of planned or scheduled deliveries that are not medically necessary. Nationally, labor induction rates during these weeks have more than doubled from 9.5 percent in 1990 to nearly 23 percent in 2006. In Florida, preterm birth rates increased from 12.8 percent in 2000 to 13.5 percent in 2009. As a result, FAHSC and March of Dimes Florida have teamed up to launch a statewide community education campaign, “Healthy Babies are Worth the Wait,” in observance of Prematurity Awareness Month. Hospitals in various Florida cities are also participating in a statewide quality initiative to reduce elective deliveries. Click here for more information from March of Dimes

Press Release
Prematurity Statement
Recipe for a Healthy Pregnancy