Grantee Profile: Faith and the Antelope Valley, Best Babies Collaborative

In Antelope Valley, going to church and learning about breastfeeding can happen all in the same place. Thanks to the Faith Based Coalition, which is part of the Antelope Valley Best Babies Collaborative, pregnant and parenting parishioners from five of the community’s largest African American churches can receive up-to-date pregnancy-related information and access to resources free of cost.

The Coalition is made up of "health ministers" from each cooperating church. It was originally formed to prevent preterm births by administering Healthy Babies: Healthy Futures, a grant-based health education curriculum for women of childbearing age. After reaching more than 2,000 women in the community, the Coalition was invited to join the BBC and now offers the curriculum to all BBC enrollees.

"Church is where many of our female parishioners feel safe. They may be more open to information from a health minister than from a doctor," said McKinley Kemp, program director at Black Infant Health, the Coalition’s lead agency. "Through the collaborative, we are able to get cutting-edge information out to a population who may not get it any other way." And because African American women are two-to-three times more likely to have a baby prematurely, partnerships like these can have a significant benefit.

With 13 collaborative partners, the AVBBC has reached more than 3,000 local residents since it began in 2005. To learn more about the Antelope Valley Best Babies Collaborative go to www.labestbabies.org.