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It has been a busy month at Nurture KC! You don’t want to miss this month’s newsletter introducing our doula services, celebrating our first podcast, providing our families with fresh produce (thanks to University Health) and more!

Nurture KC is celebrating World Doula Week and our two doulas – Lydia Robinson of Labored With Love and Lizet Ansaldo with Esperanza Birth Doula Services. They currently serve 20 pregnant moms in our Healthy Start program. Thank you, Lydia and Lizet, for being advocates for our moms and newborns!

Why do non-profits not only have a right, but an obligation, to advocate for public policy? This is what Nurture KC’s first podcast explores — explaining how and why we help shape policy in Kansas and Missouri.

Thank you to our first podcast guests: Reagan Cussimanio with The University of Kansas Health System and Kamera Meaney with University Health KC. Our Executive Director, Tracy Russell, moderated and shared her insights as well.

We will be publishing podcasts on a quarterly basis. Next up: Our Healthy Start program. Learn more at nurturekc.org/news-events/quarterly-podcasts/.

Lastly, we would love your help in spreading the word about our new podcast. Please feel free to like and share this Facebook post. We appreciate your support.

Thank you to the Overland Park Host Lions Club for donating books to children in our Healthy Start program. Parents reading to children daily is one of our program benchmarks to get kids off to a healthy start in life. Learn more about Healthy Start at https://nurturekc.org/solutions/.

Our February newsletter includes an important legislative update, information on our new immunization report, our newest Community Health Worker and a message from our Healthy Start Director about Black History Month.

We are pleased to welcome Marchai Hudson to our staff! Learn more about her at nurturekc.orgteam/marchai-hudson/.

“As the director of Healthy Start, a program of Nurture KC that serves a majority of Black families, it’s my goal to create a safe place for Black lives to matter. A place for Black women to be heard – in both the good and the bad. We listen to their fears and help them overcome. We listen to their accomplishments and help them celebrate,” says Shannon Williams, Healthy Start Director at Nurture KC. “Our program works to improve maternal health and birth outcomes. When birth outcomes are improved for Black moms and babies, then birth outcomes will improve for ALL moms and babies.”

We are so proud to work in Kansas City and proud of our KC Chiefs!

Nurture KC and the Kansas Health Institute have both published separate, yet related, reports on vaccinations in Kansas. Today our Executive Director, Tracy Russell, shared key findings with decision makers at the capitol – Senator Kristen O’Shea; Senator Cindy Holscher; Dr. John Eplee, Kansas Representative and more. Keeping Kansans safe and healthy through routine immunizations is a bipartisan issue that has support from both sides. Those reports are also now available to the public at nurturekc.org/solutions/immunization/#reports.

Check out our latest news, including 2023 legislative priorities, new doula service offerings and more! Also, a big thank you to Children’s Mercy, Unified Government Public Health Department of Wyandotte County, Infant Loss Resources and Project Eagle for renewing their organizational memberships with us this month.