Address: 3401 I Street, Suite 407, Philadelphia, PA 19134 Project Director: Kathrin Brellochs, Senior Director of Programs Contact Number: 215-989-3546 Email Address: kbrellochs@maternitycarecoalition.org Website Address: www.maternitycarecoalition.org Funds Requested: $1,100,000 each year (for 5 years) Maternity Care Coalition (MCC) is pleased to submit this proposal to implement the MOMobile® Healthy Start (MHS) program, designed to improve health outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy and reduce racial and ethnic differences in rates of infant death and adverse perinatal outcomes. MHS will utilize a trauma-informed life course approach to address the objectives of the Healthy Start Initiative. MCC’s MHS program will serve an urban project area in Philadelphia and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Specifically, the program will serve select zip codes with persistently poor birth outcomes in North Philadelphia (19121, 19122, 19127, 19132, 19134, 19135, and 19149) and Mongomery County (19001 and 19027). The target population is Black/African American pregnant women, interconception women, fathers/partners, and infant/children from birth to 18 months of age who are at disproportionately high risk for poor perinatal health outcomes. In the nine-zip code community MHS is targeting, overall infant mortality is 8.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is more than 1.5 times the U.S. average, and 98 infant deaths occurred between 2019 and 2021. The infant mortality rate among our target population is significantly higher at 14.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in Black infants compared to 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in white infants. Building on over 40 years of experience in addressing the needs of the area’s most marginalized pregnant and parenting families, the MHS program will include the following components: • Case management/care coordination for 450 participants (pregnant women, mothers, infants, and fathers/partners) • Group He
alth and Parenting Education for 250 participants (pregnant women, mothers, infants, and fathers/partners) • A Community Consortium to achieve collective impact in addressing infant mortality, perinatal heath, and the social determinants of health. Direct services are provided by Advocates—skillfully trained community health workers (CHWs) who are from, or knowledgeable of, the communities they serve and thus uniquely positioned to effectively promote healthcare utilization, positive health behaviors, and informed decision making. Advocates provide trauma-informed home-based case management, care coordination, patient navigation, and comprehensive prenatal, childbirth, lactation, and reproductive health education in a linguistically and culturally responsive way. The employment of CHWs proves an effective strategy of establishing and sustaining relationships with families as they are intimately familiar with community resources, barriers to care, and efficient systems navigation, enabling timely access to needed prenatal and postpartum health services. Maternity Care Coalition is a community-based, nonprofit (501c3) organization founded in 1980 and serving communities in Southeastern Pennsylvania with high rates of poverty, infant mortality, and staggering health disparities. MCC envisions a future in which all families receive solid support throughout the critical period of pregnancy through age three in a manner that enables lifelong health and wellness. Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of pregnant women and parenting families and enhance school readiness for children 0-3.