Our Archive

Q: What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving? 🦃
A: From 5 families in our Healthy Start program …
🍁 Brianna: I am thankful for my kids, having a place to call home and food in our mouths, and for a healthy pregnancy so far!
🍂 Contreras: I’m grateful for putting programs like Healthy Start in my life and social workers like Marcela, who provides unconditional support.
🍁 Cortne: I’m so thankful for my beautiful family and my mom who has been there for me every step of the way to help lighten the load.
🍂 Miryam: I am grateful to God that we’re staying healthy in these difficult times of so much illness.
🍁 Evelin: I’m thankful for arriving in this country safely, and for placing good people in my path who have helped me.

Check out our November Update. So much to be thankful for this month, and so much going on! See what’s new with Nurture KC.

💗 Make Nurture KC your charity of choice, and help give the babies we serve a healthy start in life. GIVE HERE. Thank you for your support! 💗

Check out Nurture KC’s Maternal Morbidity in Kansas City Report. It provides baseline data to inform our work. The data is coupled with the real-life, near-miss experiences of two moms – Elaine Diaz and Daysha Lewis – in our Healthy Start Program. They bravely share their stories and lessons learned. Finally, the report delves into maternal morbidity SOLUTIONS at the local, state and national level.

Kuddos to these moms in our Healthy Start program! They are shopping at our in-house Healthy Start Shopping Mart with points they accumulated by taking their children to the doctor, getting vaccinated, going to school, maintaining jobs and more through our program. Families can redeem points to get such items as diaper bags, baby bathtubs, feeding chairs, strollers, toys, clothes and personal care products. Learn more about Healthy Start at https://nurturekc.org/solutions/.

Check out our October Update to see what we have been working on this month. We’re always busy helping to improve the lives of local babies and moms. Like what you see? Become a member of Nurture KC at https://nurturekc.org/membership.

In honor of Safe Sleep Awareness Month, we held a contest among our Healthy Start families to show their babies sleeping safely (alone, on their backs, in a clear crib). Here are our 5 winners: babies Ava, Ma’Raeya, David, Skylynn and Liam. Their families are each receiving a $50 gift card to Walmart, courtesy of Nurture KC and our partner University Health (formerly Truman Medical Centers).

Here is the heart and soul of our mission at Nurture KC – the sweet children in our Healthy Start program. 💗 (Click “read more” to view our video.) We recently celebrated 96 toddlers graduating from our program. Congrats to their parents! And, a special thank you to Molly Doroba from the Kansas City Public Library for story time during the virtual celebration. Learn more about our Healthy Start program at https://nurturekc.org/solutions/.

Exciting news: Nurture KC has a new Community Action Team (CAT) working on the Cribs for Kids National Infant Safe Sleep Initiative.

The goal? Get all KC metro hospitals certified in baby safe sleep practices, so staff can educate parents before they leave for home with their babies.

Here are a few details …

WHO? The CAT is comprised of doctors, nurses, community advocates, infant loss experts, a mom from our Healthy Start program and a few of our employees, including our FIMR coordinator.

WHAT’S FIMR? Nurture KC implemented the Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) program in Kansas City to reduce infant deaths and health care disparities. FIMR is an action-oriented case review team identifying trends in infant losses, along with gaps in the health care system, then recommending actions to improve. Learn more at https://nurturekc.org/issues/infant-mortality/ .

That’s a wrap on our 2021 Immunization Symposium: “Vaccination in the Time of COVID-19.” Thank you to our sponsors: Home State Health, Sunflower Health Plan, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Moderna, Immunize Kansas Coalition, Missouri Immunization Coalition, Walgreens, Johnson County Department of Health and Environment and Sanofi Pasteur. The event was made possible through through the support of these organizations.