Working to better understand what impacts pregnant women and babies in Kansas City and surrounding regions.

 

Infant mortality is a key indicator of the overall health of a community. In Kansas City, far too many babies have died and for far too long. It is time to focus on measurable goals that address systemic issues.
Cradle Kansas City is a collective impact group consisting of public and private partnerships, community organizations, and resident experts with lived experience who are dedicated to changing the systems, large and small, that reinforce the status quo. We accomplish change through: partnerships with medical systems, resident-built strategies, and clear messaging that is aimed at systemic change.

 

Our Core

Joy – this is about babies and mom’s being healthy after all.
Hope – because we believe every baby born in Kansas City should celebrate their first birthday!
Action – 2 babies die each month from a preventable cause, we don’t have time for working in silos.
Data – because everyone wants to do the community facing things that “feel good” but rarely ever “do good”. Data tells us where to aim, and if we are making a real impact for our communities.
Clarity – infant mortality is a complicated problem, which can cause people to give up. A clear path to action is why people will follow us.

https://www.facebook.com/cradlekc EMBED SOCIAL FEED HERE

 

Our Goal

Our goal is really big! That’s why we only have one!

 

Close the Health Equity Gap

 

How We Reach Our Goal

Prenatal care best practices are the only way we know how to reach our goal of closing the maternal and infant health equity gap. The first step is to understand what are prenatal care best practices. This is done through engagement in ongoing quality improvement initiatives which seek to understand: what is currently taking place in Kansas City, where the gaps are, and who is best suited to fill those gaps.

Through prenatal care Best practices and quality improvement we aim to:

 

• Cut extreme preterm birth
• Eliminate all preventable sleep related deaths
• Decrease maternal smoking

 

Strategy

 

Best Practices

Developing Best Practices that are: data driven, community building, relationship building, co-designed respectful, authentic, and transparent with personal and professional buy in and rooted in the belief that Equity is the Best Practice.

 

• Develop Best Practices for MCH data and information sharing in the Kansas City metro
• Develop Best Practices for creating authentic resident, program and provider relationships to foster an integrated care team approach to close the health equity gap, improve health and solve community
• Develop Best Practices for advocating at the local/state/federal polices which close the health equity gap for all mothers, babies and families.

 

We believe the biggest impact will come from changing how systems interact with families, not how families interact with systems. The strategy is intentionally high level and broad. System change takes time. We may not reach our goal of ‘Closing the health equity gap’ in the next 5 years, but that OK, it took more than 5 years for the problem to get this big.

 

How We Do It

 

Cradle Kansas City

 

Our Core

The Cradle KC Collective – a group of maternal child health professionals, pubic and private enterprise, and community addressing system changes through collaboration and multi-sector partnership

Community Action Board – a group of resident experts who co-design Cradle KC strategies and actions, and ensure Cradle Kansas city and partners are responsive and accountable to community

My Life, My Plan – a co-designed family planning workbook to help families decide if and when to become pregnant

Every Baby to 1 – a faith-based initiative promoting the 3 S’s (Safe Sleep, Social Support, Safe Space) and supporting the healthy development of infants in the Kansas City area

Plan Your Pause – PUT CAMPAIGN TEXT HERE

 

Looking to the Future

 

What Is Next For Cradle Kansas City?

 

• Strategies into actionable steps Prototyping and rapid fire testing of campaigns and ideas Prenatal care best-practice quality improve projects Develop metro wide Data warehouse to connect programs to data, programs to programs, programs to people, and people to people
• Develop communication and messaging campaigns that resonate with families  Promote and support public health policy that allows for barrier free medical care and supportive services for all families regardless of income, country of origin, or immigration status
• Continuously work towards transparent and authentic communication and reporting for Cradle Kansas City and partners

 

For more information about Cradle Kansas City, its goals, and initiatives please contact: