A message from our AV AAIMM Backbone Agency partner Project Joy: 

The Library of Congress, National Archives Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of American History.

Youth With a purpose is launching a mentor and mentee program for moms under 29 in the Antelope Valley.

LA SAVES NEWSLETTER: TAX SEASON IS HERE

We recently asked Davion Mauldin, MS, Los Angeles Department of Public Health Fatherhood Coordinator, a few questions about his fatherhood journey. We hope his answers will inspire you and give insight into the incredibly important role that fathers play in the lives of their children. Davion also heads the Expecting Fathers Group for Black Dads, which has a new five-week educational workshop kicking off on Tuesday, January 25.

Bridget Biddy Mason (1818-1891) was one of the first landowners in Los Angeles beginning in the 1850s and founded the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in L.A. in 1872.

Although born a slave in Mississippi, Mason migrated with her last owner, Robert Marion Smith, a Mormon convert, to the state of Utah. Along the 1,700 mile, 300-wagon caravan trek—which she  traversed entirely on foot—Mason set up and broke down the camp, cooked the meals, herded cattle and....served as a midwife—all while caring for her own three daughters, one of which was a newborn.

[Gerald Garth is a part of the AAIMM network, and Lead facilitator of the AAIMM Village Fund.]

'It was June 2020 and Gerald Garth was asked to do a video interview with the Los Angeles Times about his role as one of the main organizers of the All Black Lives Matter march that was only days away.

For the interview setting, the reporter chose the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Bayard Rustin Plaza, named for the openly gay civil rights activist who was the organizing genius behind the 1963 March on Washington and a top advisor to Martin Luther King.

“It’s a moment I’ll never forget,” Garth tells LGBT News Now.

 In early January, he found himself back at the Center but this time to begin his job as the newly-hired director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

“When I saw the Center’s commitment to really lifting, expanding, and growing its work in addressing racism and equality and equity, I saw an opportunity for me to bring my skills and strengths to a place that has been just a pillar in LGBTQ+ health and wellness,” he says. “I’ve always celebrated the Center and the great work that it has done. It has been a beacon and uplifted so many people and communities.”

Garth has already began working with Center leadership and with a staff DEI committee to create a racial equity plan for the Center. The goal of the plan is to establish actionable and measurable initiatives in every Center department to further the effort of dismantling systemic racism.

“If we liken ourselves to an orchestra, there is value coming from every section but it has to be moving and playing together for it to be at its best,” he explains. “One of my goals is to really help break a number of the silos that we have historically seen in the Center and tie that work together.”

The Perinatal Equity Initiative Coordinator will be responsible for conducting a range of tasks related to the effective and efficient implementation of the Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI) and the Los Angeles County Five-Year Plan to address racial inequality in birth outcomes. 

The Los Angeles County AAIMM Prevention Initiative is a coalition of the Los Angeles County Departments of Public Health, Health Services, and Mental Health, First 5 LA, community organizations, mental and health care providers, funders, and community members. We are united in one purpose: to address the unacceptably high rates of Black infant and maternal deaths in the county and ensure healthy and joyous births for Black families. Through a series of comprehensive coordinated strategies, we aim to reduce the county's gap in Black/White infant mortality rates by 30% by 2023.

The AAIMM Initiative approaches its work from a frame that the root cause of the mortality disparity is the stress caused by a Black person’s exposure to racism and the impact of that stress on a Black woman/birthing person’s body, compounded by structures in society that perpetuate racism, and the presence of implicit and overt bias in the systems of support that interact with Black families. 

The Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI) was established in the state legislature's Budget Act of 2018 as the Department of Public Health’s response to the alarming statewide gap in Black infant mortality. PEI is designed as a complement to the state's Black Infant Health (BIH) Program, a group-based service, information and social support program for Black mothers to buffer the negative effects of racism on their health. The goal of PEI is to improve birth outcomes and reduce preterm birth and mortality through interventions implemented at the county level that are evidence-based, evidence-informed or reflect promising practices. 

If you're a Black person with a Due Date before January 15th - You may qualify for a NO COST Doula Program

See flyer for details!

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 16, 2021) — Communities Lifting Communities (CLC), the Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance), and the Hospital Association of Southern California (HASC), recently marked the end of its first, two-year cohort of Cherished Futures for Black Moms & Babies, a collaborative effort to reduce Black maternal and infant health inequities in Los Angeles County.

The Cherished Futures landmark took place just prior to a Dec. 7 White House statement that identified reducing maternal mortality and morbidity as a strategic objective of the Biden-Harris Administration. The statement followed a presidential proclamation released during April’s Black Maternal Health Week, when Vice President Kamala Harris presided over a roundtable on the issue.  

“Black women in our country are facing a maternal health crisis,” Harris said at the time. “We know the primary reasons why: systemic racial inequities and implicit bias,”