Planning Council Supports Healthy Infants

Did you know that…

Milwaukee’s black infant mortality rate—13.85 per 1,000 live births—is higher than the infant mortality rate in 60 other countries, including Jamaica, Ukraine, Costa Rica and Malaysia?

The Milwaukee Lifecourse Initiative for Healthy Families (LIHF) was awarded a $250,000 grant from the Oversight and Advisory Committee of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, part of a $10 million overall commitment to address infant mortality among African-Americans in Wisconsin?

The Planning Council for Health and Human Services, Inc., and the Women’s Fund of Greater Milwaukee are facilitating an action planning process for the Milwaukee LIHF coalition?

The Milwaukee LIHF coalition includes more than 60 local organizations, and is being co-chaired by Dr. Earnestine Willis of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Dr. Patricia McManus of the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin. The coalition will work to improve access to maternal and child health resources, strengthen African-American families, and create an action plan specific to Milwaukee. To achieve these goals the coalition will engage a wide variety of stakeholders, including African-American families across the generations, the faith community, funders and the general public. Once the plan is in place, the coalition will present that to the Wisconsin Partnership Program for potential implementation awards.

To learn more about the Milwaukee LIHF project, visit the project website at http://milwaukee-lihf.wikispaces.com/ .