About the Coalition

Broward Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. was incorporated on February 14, 1992 and is the leader in Maternal and Child Healthcare in Broward County in providing prenatal and infant care services. The Coalition is responsible for the formation and administration of the Broward Healthy Start system, which includes management of subcontracts for quality services to pregnant women and children birth to age three, monitoring services through quality improvement and assurance responsibilities and accountability. Broward Healthy Start Coalition, Inc current membership consists of 75.

Primary goals are:

to reduce fetal and infant mortality and morbidity
reduce the number of low birth weight and pre-term birth
improve maternal and child health developmental outcomes.

A Message from the Executive Director

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

At the end of the fiscal year (2007-2008) the Broward Healthy Start Coalition, Inc. is celebrating one year of independence as a free-standing independent 501(C)(3) organization for the first time since its inception in 1991. As with all birthing processes, the Coalition has experienced its share of labor pains over the past year that resulted in a brand new executive management team who are excited about the potential for this organization in the years to come.

While the Coalition has undergone is own challenges during 2007, the local maternal child health provider community continue to provide services that demonstrate a positive impact upon the community. Specifically, 10,619 women and infants received Healthy Start services in Broward County during 2007. This represents approximately 50% of all women who gave birth in Broward County during 2007. Approximately 4,000 of these woman and infants received one or more Enhanced Services from a Healthy Start provider (i.e. parenting education, childbirth education, breastfeeding education, nutritional counseling, psychological counseling, smoking cessation counseling and/or interconceptional education). Additionally, Broward’s screening rates and consent to Healthy Start participation for both prenatal woman and infants have shown a measurable improvement during the past year. We are proud to work within a Coalition of organizations that are dedicated to our mission and are willing to go the extra mile to assure that the needs of our clients are being met.

As we look toward the future we are excited about beginning several new initiatives that are identified in the 5-year Service Delivery Plan (2008-2013). These new initiatives will focus on increased collaboration with community partners, improved quality in service delivery, the engagement and retention of clients in services, improved and simplified data collection mechanisms, collaborative and structured training efforts, and the use of data to support all new program initiatives.

The staff of Broward Healthy Start Coalition and I are proud to facilitate this organization’s mission to support new mothers and babies and demonstrate a measureable positive impact upon maternal and child health services and outcomes in Broward County. We are also excited to step into our legislatively mandated role as Broward’s leader in maternal child health policy and programming.

Sincerely,

Donna Sogegian, LCSW
Executive Director