Programs

Housing is a critical determinant of maternal and child health. The lack of safe, affordable housing, especially for Black households, is a prominent issue in Indiana.

The Faith-based Maternal and Child Health initiative is focused on building capacity within faith-based organizations to support positive maternal and child health outcomes.

Mothers on the Rise serves mother-baby pairs transitioning from the Indiana Women’s Prison Leath Unit to their home community. The team and partners help mothers navigate their home community and work to build a mother’s capacity to flourish.

Health equity and promotion requires transformation of our laws and policies to better support mothers and children. Using a human rights framework, we work with both rights-bearers (women) to ensure that they know and can make use of their rights and duty-bearers (individuals in positions of authority) to change systems to better support human flourishing.

In collaboration with early childhood partners and parents in the community, we work to ensure that all children have access to equitable learning opportunities to help them achieve their full potential as engaged learners and valued members of our community.

We provide home environmental resources, healthy homes education and legal advocacy to build the capacity of Indianapolis low-income families experiencing pregnancy to create and maintain homes with healthy indoor environments.

Low-income mothers face many challenges to securing living-wage jobs. Barriers such as inflexible work hours, lack of affordable job training programs, lack of childcare options and stereotypes held by employers about these women keep them stuck in a state of economic immobility.

To address the multi-level factors contributing to unfavorable outcomes for vulnerable mother-baby dyads, the Grassroots MCH Initiative is advancing individual- and systems-level change through community-based interventions and partnerships with social service organizations, and it is now expanding into peer navigation of health services for mothers and babies with chronic health needs.