WINTER 2019
Foundation Partnerships help improve
Infant Health Outcomes
H
ealthcare Foundation has announced
the results of Taking Care of You
(TCOY), a four-year, $2.5 million
initiative to reduce adverse birth
outcomes 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 implement various strategies 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.
seriously consider what’s at stake and what
can be accomplished when we apply evidence
-based programs with skill and compassion.”
The TCOY evaluation 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 national for its maternal mortality rate.
The 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. ◼
The results, detailed in the Foundation’s Results
Matter publication, showed that TCOY served as an
important public health model for delivering
comprehensive education and services in high-
disparity communities seeking ways to reduce
adverse infant health outcomes.
During
implementation, none of the programs reported
sleep-related infant deaths.
“The results speak to the need and opportunity to
address our State’s dismal rankings on infant and
maternal mortality,” said Gary D. Nelson, PhD,
Foundation president. “We urge Georgians to
ACHIEVING HEALTH EQUITY FOR ALL
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