Boston Healthy Start Initiative (BHSI) has been operating since 1991, working to decrease infant mortality rates and promote improved health outcomes for Black women in Boston and their infants. BHSI supports women, children, and families through education, care coordination, connection to resources, and advocacy. Additionally, BHSI coordinates the Community Action Network (CAN), through which community residents and representatives from health professions, government agencies, nonprofits, and local universities meet to discuss, strategize, and advocate for community-level policy changes.

Over the course of this five-year project, Child Trends and BHSI leadership will collaborate on activities that fall into two broad categories: (1) providing support and technical assistance around BHSI’s data monitoring and data management practices, and (2) performing an independent mixed methods evaluation of BHSI program processes and outcomes. Information obtained from the process evaluation will help inform program operations; specifically, results will indicate how well services are being implemented, identify areas of strength and areas that need reinforcement, and highlight new opportunities for developing quality improvement activities. Findings from the outcome evaluation will provide BHSI with valuable information about whether families are meeting program goals and objectives, what role the program may have played in families reaching these benchmarks, and how services could be improved to more effectively serve families within their specific neighborhood and service context.

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Staff

Principal Investigator and Project Director: Sarah Crowne, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor: Jessica Goldberg, Ph.D.
Project Manager: Hallie Garrison