For more than 50 years, infants in the Greater Cleveland area have been dying at a rate similar to many third-world countries. First Year Cleveland wants to change that. We are a community movement committed to ensuring that every baby born in Cuyahoga County will celebrate their first birthday. Our 11 community-wide action teams are poised to tackle the challenges that contribute to infant mortality. We focus on addressing racial disparities, decreasing extreme prematurity and eliminating sleep-related deaths — proven strategies aimed to reduce (and sustain a low number of) infant deaths for decades to come. Alarmed by what many considered an unsolvable problem, leaders representing every sector of the community came together in early 2016 and established First Year Cleveland to develop an effective, comprehensive and sustainable approach to solving infant mortality in our area. Early efforts have been encouraging — proving that success is possible — but much more needs to be done to keep our babies alive and healthy so they can reach their first birthday. Join us as we work together to reach the national goal set by the CDC for infant mortality by 2020.

1. First Year Cleveland (FYC)
What Infant Mortality Is – And How We
Can All Keep Babies from Dying
February 7, 2019
Shaker Heights High School
@FirstYearCleveland
@FirstYearCLE
#SafeSleepHeroes
FirstYearCleveland.org

2. First Year Cleveland
Ø Overview of First Year Cleveland Animated Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP2hBn4_aT4

3. Today’s discussion…
• Welcome and Thank You
• FYC – Collective Impact to Reduce
Infant Mortality
• Promising early results
• The Path Forward
o Battle misconceptions; Stay focused on the
core challenges
o Execute FYC recommendations and action
plan
• Next Steps;
• Questions & Answers

4. Infant
Mortality
Rate
• A community’s commitment to
having our expectant parents, parents
and children thrive.
• Health before pregnancy.
• The care given during pregnancy.
• The support families do or do not
receive.
• The broader social and economic
landscape.
It’s a reflection of…

5. Supporting Health and
Birth Outcomes Over the Life Course
Policy
Services
Community
Individual
Ø Develop an overall system view to reduce infant
deaths and advocate for local, state and federal policies
through an equity lens;
Ø Align, coordinate and leverage public and private services
aiming towards results that matter. Secure funds for what
is working;
Ø Advance shared responsibility and accountability. Inform
and activate community on what works and what does
not;
Ø Bias training in order to ensure we are providing the
highest quality one-on-one services.

6. Today’s discussion…
• Welcome and Thank You
• FYC – Collective Impact to Reduce
Infant Mortality
• The Path Forward
o Battle misconceptions; Stay focused on the
core challenges
o Execute FYC recommendations and action
plan
• Next Steps
• Questions & Answers
• FYC – Collective Impact to Reduce
Infant Mortality
• Promising early results

7. First Year Cleveland
A data-informed community collaborative
WHO WE ARE
• Established by 13 civic leaders from Cuyahoga County (end of 2015)
• Advisory council of 300+ community representatives and 90+
organizations
• Collaborative, grass roots, bottom-up
WHO WE REALLY ARE
Laser focused, data-informed and
executing 11 FYC Action Teams to
reduce infant deaths by:
• Reducing Racial Disparities
• Addressing Extreme Prematurity
• Eliminating Sleep Related Deaths

8. Collective Impact is Working!
FYC has been busy…
Building
public will.
Securing
funding.
Supporting
coordinated
activities.
Establishing shared
measurement practices.
Advancing
public policy.

9. Collective Impact is Working!
…and seeing early positive results.
All data from Cuyahoga County
2015 2017
Total Births 14,843 14,558
Total Deaths 156 118
African American 104 92
Hispanic 8 10
White 43 16
Infant Mortality Rate (total) 10.51 IMR 8.11 IMR
African American 18.45 16.10
White 5.77 2.4

10. Collective Impact is Working!
Understand the problems that you’re fixing.
The two most significant causes of infant death…
Extreme prematurity Preventable infant sleep deaths
X

11. Investing in Data
We are on the road of having community
impact through a culture that values data.
We developed a three year road map that shows a reasonable and
doable path to change…and infant deaths are decreasing.
We are proving that our community can
identify real change when it occurs.
FYC has clearly stated the problem using data.

12. Today’s discussion…
• Welcome and Thank You
• FYC – Collective Impact to Reduce
Infant Mortality
• Promising early results
• The Path Forward
• Next Steps
• Questions & Answers
• The Path Forward
o Battle misconceptions; Stay focused on the
core challenges
o Execute FYC recommendations and action
plan

13. Reality
Cuyahoga County has the
highest rate of prenatal care in
the state and the worst IMR.
In 2015, 50% of African American
babies who died from prematurity and
birth defects were on Medicaid and
50% on private insurance.
In the past 10 years, less than 4% of all
infant deaths were born to teen moms
and/or moms with addiction or mental
health issues.
Myth
Babies are dying due to poor or no
prenatal care.
Poor Black babies are dying, so
poverty must be key.
Babies who are dying are born to teen
moms and/or moms who abuse drugs
and alcohol.
Assumptions can no longer drive this work.

14. FYC’s #1 priority is to reduce racial disparities.
White IMR has been improving at a faster pace than black IMR.
14.3
White
25.1
Non-White
1975
15.2
African
American
5.8
White
2015
Infant Mortality Rate in Ohio, 1975 vs. 2015

15. Think…
5,914
more black babies would not have
died in Ohio from 1990-2015.Source: ODH data, HRSA evaluation

16. We must address racial inequalities.
Build trust.
Strengthen data
capabilities.
Understand and
address the impact of
racism on maternal
and child health.

17. Systems-level interventions are required.
While the mother is the
environment of the
developing fetus,
the community is
the environment
of the mother.
Dr. Lawrence Wallack
Going Upstream for the Health
of the Next Generation

18. First Year Cleveland
Goals for our 3 top priorities…
1. Reduce racial disparities.
• All babies deserve to reach their first
birthday.
2. Reduce extreme prematurity.
• Reducing stress in the environment is
one key.
3. Reduce preventable sleep-related infant deaths.
• Almost all of the 203 sleep-related deaths in the past
10 years were accidental suffocation.

19. First Year Cleveland
…we can all help save our babies together.
1. System-wide initiatives to combat structural racism.
• Try the Harvard Implicit Bias Project to check your own biases.
(Every human has some… they’re just different by person.)
• Make sure your clubs, organizations, speakers, and events are
diverse.
2. Learn, Practice, and Share the ABCDs of Safe Sleep.
• Become a Safe Sleep Hero and tell your friends.
• Step in to help if you see a baby being put to sleep in any way
different than Alone, on their Back, in a bare Crib with no pillows,
blankets, or stuffed animals, and Don’t smoke in a home with a
baby. #SafeSleepHeroes

20. First Year Cleveland
Ø Safe Sleep Heroes Training Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mmS5tvSoU8&t=2s
https://www.slideshare.net/FirstYearCleveland/first-year-cleveland-safe-sleep-heroes-
training-1

21. Next steps…
• Contact us if you want help organizing a
Safe Sleep Heroes group or training!
• We would love your creative ideas: videos,
photos, Instagram posts, stories, poems,
artwork, or other items to share on our
website and social channels. (You may be
featured in the media!)
• We may have senior projects or volunteer
opportunities you can add to your college
application!
• FirstYearCleveland.org
• FYCideas@case.edu
• @FirstYearCleveland @FirstYearCLE
• #SafeSleepHeroes

22. Questions?
Thank you!