Community Action Council

First Year Cleveland is a community-wide, data-driven group acting with urgency to prevent our babies from dying. Working together, we are making an impact due to our collaboration with a diverse mix of individuals and organizations from throughout Cuyahoga County. They comprise our FYC Community Action Council.

This group of more than 400 prospective and current parents, along with community stakeholders including health care providers, grassroot entities, public and private entities, faith-based organizations and the philanthropic community, are working on interconnected interventions across eleven FYC Action Teams.

If you are interested in joining the Community Action Council, please contact us.

Community Action Council Meetings

The dates of the remaining 2019 First Year Cleveland Community Action Council meetings are below. Please click the link for each meeting to RSVP on Eventbrite and to see the meeting details.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019 — This meeting is being merged with the September meeting due to scheduling conflicts with the Jerry Sue Thornton Center

Thursday, September 5, 2019 — Please note new date.

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

April 8, 2019 Community Action Council Meeting

The Community Action Council met on April 8, 2019 and heard important updates in a number of areas. Richard Stacklin, Data Analyst with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, reported on fourth quarter birth/death rates and shared some troubling news. Early 2019 data unfortunately shows a rise in deaths among babies born extremely preterm and unlikely to survive.

In the first quarter of 2019, 22 babies born in the county were born before 23 weeks’ gestation. Eighteen of those babies were African American. In all of 2018, only 49 babies were born this early. Following the meeting, First Year Cleveland action team members worked to determine the reason for this significant increase and discovered that an unusual circumstance had occurred which skews the data and explains a large percentage of the increase.

Mr. Stacklin’s presentation as well as 2018-19 Cuyahoga County infant mortality and birth outcome data can be found in the links below.

Silas Buchanan, CEO at the Institute for eHealth Equity, followed and discussed a number of excellent initiatives currently underway. An update from the Engagement and Public Policy Committee was provided by Marcia Egbert, Senior Program Officer for Human Services with the George Gund Foundation, and Chief Natoya Walker Minor, Chief of Public Affairs, City of Cleveland, whose very informative presentation generated a lot of conversation, including how we might best influence state departments and legislators. Terry Allan, Cuyahoga County’s Health Commissioner, provided an update on the impact of smoking on sleep-related infant deaths and the Tobacco21 initiative.

The presentations, as well as the remaining 2019 Community Action Council meeting dates, are below. We encourage you to attend these upcoming meetings and to invite others who are also invested in the health and equity of our babies, moms, families and community.

Richard Stacklin, CCBH: Update on Unaudited 2018 and 2019 Infant Birth & Death Data

Cuyahoga County Unaudited Infant Mortality & Birth Outcome Data 2018-2019

Silas Buchanan: Important Work of the Institute for eHealth Equity

FYC Engagement and Public Policy Committee Update

Terry Allan and Action Team 11 Leadership – Mobilization Strategy