Greetings to all of our community partners and beautiful families!
Thank you for visiting us at our website and taking the time
to learn about the Healthy Start Coalition of Flagler and Volusia
Counties, and the services we fund and support for families.
We are committed to our mission of reducing fetal and infant
mortality, low birth weight, and poor developmental outcomes
for our precious children.
We have seen the impact that human connection and compassion
can have for families facing the realities of child bearing
and child rearing. Since 1990, the initiation of Healthy Start
in our community has resulted in the infant mortality rate being
reduced by 50%, from almost 10 deaths per 1000 births to 4.2
per 1,000 in 2005!
While Volusia and Flagler Counties have made strides in the
areas of fetal mortality, adolescent pregnancy and first trimester
entry into prenatal care, our rates of infant mortality and
low birth weight among Black women in Volusia County, and very
low birth weight among Hispanic women in Flagler County, show
racial and ethnic disparities that require our immediate attention.
Volusia and Flagler Counties also show significantly higher
percentages than the state for tobacco use among pregnant women.
There is still much to be done.
Our community, as many in our state, is currently faced with
the critical task of developing strategies to assure the health
and well-being of our most vulnerable populations. Medicaid
reform and policy changes regarding undocumented residents threaten
the ability for many women to gain equal access to health care.
Each day brings forth new challenges that affect the well-being
of our women and children and call us to action.
We must continue to enlist the support
of entire medical, social service and
faith-based communities to improve
the outcomes for our women and babies.
Each one of us achieves the health
and quality of life afforded to us
by the love and support of our very
first community – our family.
Each family must navigate its way within
a greater community that either values
the core of that family’s existence
or not. This value will not be fully
realized with one method, or by one
system of care. It must be approached
as a committed effort by multiple systems,
and those systems must achieve integration
through continued leadership. May we
all strive to support each family with
the medical, social, financial, and
planning resources at our disposal!
Sincerely,
Dixie L. Morgese
Executive Director
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