Foundation partnerships in four Georgia communities achieve
notable improvements in infant health outcomes

 Atlanta, GA – March 20, 2019 – Healthcare Foundation has announced the results of Taking Care of You (TCOY), a four-year, $2.5 million initiative to reduce adverse birth outcomes in high disparity communities in Georgia. The Initiative represents the most rigorously designed, implemented, and evaluated investment in the Foundation’s 17 years of grantmaking.

Three Georgia public health districts – Clayton County Board of Health, Lowndes County Board of Health, and the Southwest Public Health District – received grant support through TCOY to increase their capacity to serve high-risk African American and Hispanic women during and after their pregnancies to reduce preterm births, low birth weight, and infant-related deaths. Emory University conducted the evaluation and Porter Novelli developed a social marketing campaign for the Initiative.  Clients benefitted from each program in different ways with each site successful incorporating reproductive life planning, breastfeeding awareness, and safe sleep education.

The results, detailed in the Foundation’s Results Matter publication, showed TCOY as an important public health model for delivering comprehensive education and services in high-disparity communities seeking ways to reduce adverse infant health outcomes.

“The results speak to the need and opportunity to address our State’s dismal rankings in infant and maternal mortality,” said Gary D. Nelson, PhD, Foundation president. “We urge Georgians to seriously consider what’s at stake and what can be accomplished when we apply evidence-based programs with skill and compassion.”

The TCOY evaluation results also revealed that underlying factors that contribute to poor and infant health outcomes also contribute to poor maternal health outcomes.  Amnesty International recently ranked Georgia as 50^th in the nation for its maternal mortality rate. The TCOY evaluation results offer Healthcare Georgia Foundation the opportunity to leverage resources by partnering with community-based nonprofits, policy groups and other organizations to focus on women’s overall health as well as the social determinants of health that impact adverse birth outcomes in Georgia.

For more information on the Take Care of You Initiative and to read the Results Matter publication, visit healthcaregeorgia.org.

 About Healthcare Georgia Foundation
Healthcare Georgia Foundation is a statewide, charitable organization with a vision of health equity in Georgia where all people attain their fullest potential for health and well-being. Through strategic grantmaking, our mission is to enable, improve, and advance the health and well-being of all Georgians. For more information, visit heathcaregeorgia.org.

###