Collaborating for Healthy Babies and Families
A group of volunteers started The Kansas City Maternal and Child Health Coalition in response to a 1983 Missouri Department of Social Services report on high infant mortality rates in metro KC. The coalition has grown throughout the years (and was known as Mother & Child Health Coalition) before being renamed Nurture KC in late 2019. The name Nurture KC reflects the diverse families we serve from pre-pregnancy through adolescence.
The centerpiece of Nurture KC is Healthy Start, a federal grant program that employs a community health worker model to assist families from preconception through 18 months of life for the baby. Along the way, we recognized family health is a continuum. Nurture KC is also the home for the Mid-America Immunization Coalition (MAIC), a bi-state group dedicated to disease prevention, and the Fetal Infant Morality Review (FIMR), which identifies trends in fetal and infant loses (along with gaps in the healthcare system) and recommends actions to improve.
As always, our mission remains the same – to reduce infant death and improve family health across the KC metro area.
