Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
The city of Baltimore has struggled for decades to provide the economic and social infrastructure necessary for its residents to achieve their full health potential. Chronic, cumulative stress from the constant challenge to provide materially for one’s family – including meeting the basic needs of food, housing, and safety – fall largely on mothers. Baltimore Healthy Start, Inc. (BHS) proposes to continue to serve pregnant and postpartum women, primarily African Americans, their infants and toddlers (up to 18 months of age), and fathers/significant others, with Case Management and Care Coordination (CM/CC) services in 24 census tracts in the Baltimore City, Maryland project area. Furthermore, additional project area women outside of the 24 CM/CC services census tracts will receive group-based health and parenting education services in collaboration with the Baltimore City Health Department and other maternal and infant home-visiting programs in Baltimore City. The mission of BHS is to improve the health and well-being of pregnant and postpartum women, their babies, families, and communities by providing comprehensive, supportive services in the communities where they live by utilizing a Life Course perspective among women of child-bearing age in an urban area where racial disparities in birth outcomes between non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites are persistently pervasive. BHS is a vital foundation for citywide and regional efforts to improve maternal, infant, and child health, through its experience, expertise, and practice in addressing the range and depth of challenges faced by families in its Project Area. While residents of the BHS Project Area continuously face circumstances of adversity, BHS has striven to improve the health and well-being of Project Area families since its inception in 1991. In the course of its 30-year history, BHS has served as a hub organization for the provision of perinatal services and has directly prov ided comprehensive home-visiting, care coordination, health education, and life planning services to more than 20,000 pregnant, postpartum, and interconceptional women in the most distressed communities in Baltimore. When compared to citywide birth outcomes, BHS has significantly improved very low birth weight and infant mortality rates among its participants and for its CM/CC service area, key goals of HRSA in addressing the elimination/reduction of disparities. Through this funding opportunity, BHS will continue to work toward improving pregnancy outcomes and infant health, maternal health, and family well-being utilizing community engagement, door-to-door outreach, group-based health and parenting education, and comprehensive home- and center-based case management, care coordination, and client advocacy services, combined with innovative interventions for the early detection of emergent adverse perinatal clinical conditions in coordination with clinical care providers.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
