The Boston Healthy Start Initiative (BHSI), in operation since 1991, aims to decrease infant mortality rates and promote positive maternal and child 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)—a group of community residents and representatives from community-based organizations, health care, government, and other groups who work together to reduce racial inequities in infant mortality and poor birth outcomes in Boston through policy- and community-level changes.
The Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) contracted Child Trends from 2019-2024 and again from 2024-2029 to support program evaluation and continuous quality improvement (CQI) activities. Over the course of the current five-year project, Child Trends and BHSI leadership will collaborate on the following activities:
- Conduct an annual assessment of priority Healthy Start benchmarks.
- Collect data from staff and participating families to better understand both implementation challenges and family outcomes.
- Develop CQI activities to strengthen program implementation and improve family outcomes.
- Facilitate a Family Advisory Committee through an annual meeting and ad hoc engagement to support evaluation activities.
- Disseminate findings to local partners and at national MCH conferences.
Funder
The BHSI evaluation is funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and conducted in partnership with BPHC.
Staff
Principal investigator and project director: Hannah Rackers, MPH
Project manager: Jessica Conway
Senior advisor: Sarah Crowne, PhD