Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition Inc.

The Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition seeks to ensure that every child has a healthy start in life and continues to develop to their full potential. The Coalition has 4 primary goals:

- Assure that the existing barriers to maternal and infant health care in Monroe County are minimized
- Promote and protect the health and well-being of all pregnant women, children, and their families in the Florida Keys
- Establish partnerships to promote coordinated community-based care for pregnant women, children and their families
- Provide education, outreach, and advocacy on topics relating to maternal child health and parenting

Our 2020-2023 Strategic Plan outlines an additional 4 priority areas. These goals were established to guide the Coalition in optimally serving the needs of families and the community over the coming years.

- Maintain current programs and services
- Address the shortage of maternal and child health professionals
- Develop family well-being support opportunities
- Strengthen organizational structure through next-level business growth

The Coalition will maintain current programs and services by:
- ensuring all current programming is available county-wide
- engaging in yearly evaluation of current programming

The Coalition will address the shortage of maternal and child health professionals by:
- addressing transportation challenges to minimize this barrier to care
- launching a pilot doula program to provide additional care ensuring support and education is available before, during, and after childbirth and allowing for an increase in time for our current medical providers
- engaging in intentional planning with Coalition members and key partners to vet and create longer-term solutions to obstetrician/pediatrician, midwife, and other maternal and child health provider shortage
- convening with community partners to strategize the development of a birth center with pediatric services

The Coalition will develop family well-being support opportunities by:
- conducting research on program design, initiating pilots, reassessing, adjusting, and implementing programming county-wide
- partnering with other non-profit agencies to address mental health provider crisis

The Coalition will strengthen organizational structure through next-level business growth by:
- expanding marketing and public relations to showcase the Coalition’s brand and tell its story
- assessing and managing risks
- engaging in diversified fundraising activities to improve sustainability and expand resource capacity
- engaging in the annual evaluation of all programs

The Coalition has a 30-year track record of demonstrated success in meeting the unique needs of families in our community. Stable Coalition leadership, ongoing community needs assessment leading to programmatic innovation, and diversification of funding for sustainability provide the framework to support effective maternal and child health policy and practices in Monroe County. Through the diversity of funding, we have been able to keep all of our programming free, donation-based, or sliding-scale payment plans in order to ensure families of all income levels have access to support.

It is the Coalition’s responsibility to bring partners to the table on maternal and child health issues. The staff, board, and members of the Coalition know the people in our community and it is through partnerships and lasting relationships with families, medical professionals, government agencies, and other non-profit organizations that we have built trust over the years and continue our reputation of putting the mothers, babies, and families first in the Keys.

Every year we provide assistance to over 75% of the 650-700 babies born in Monroe County. When women discover they are pregnant, they reach out to the Coalition for guidance and invite us into their homes. We have a nine-month window of opportunity to discover what challenges they are experiencing and work to connect them with support and resources before the baby is born. We then stay connected with families for up to five years (and beyond), building trusting relationships and supporting them through their children's early years. Working with families from the very beginning allows us to help them make tremendous changes in their lives and prevent more serious interventions down the road.

The Coalition’s 30 years of serving families in the Keys has contributed to healthy infants, prepared parents, and the overall well-being of families in our community. The Coalition was founded in 1992 as an outgrowth/extension of the previously named Monroe County Perinatal Network, whose main goal was to provide needed prenatal and infant care services to the community. MCPN received very little funding and operated primarily on volunteer efforts to provide services. Over the years we have grown from a small non-profit with a limited scope to being the organization community members trust and rely upon to solve problems.

Strategic planning and long-range goal setting allow us to deal with the challenges of right now while looking ahead at how we can change the landscape of healthcare. We continue to grow and expand each of our core programs to meet the needs of families in our community. Our metrics show an increase in reach to families, providing high-quality care and support to parents and children in the Keys.

We will continue to launch new needed pilots and initiatives, expand into different locations, gather partners to discuss collaborative responses to community challenges, and monitor the health and well-being of pregnant women, infants, and their families in the Florida Keys.