First Year Cleveland (FYC), a public-private partnership aimed at reducing infant mortality and eliminating racial inequities in infant health outcomes, announced the appointment of members to its reconstituted Executive Committee. Installing the new committee will catalyze FYC’s shift in strategic direction to focus on combating racism as a root cause of maternal and infant mortality. Change in the initiative’s governance will be an essential guiding force for FYC’s evolution and a pivotal step to infuse considerations of equity and racial justice throughout its activities.

Expanding from 17 to 20 members, the Committee will lead FYC’s health care delivery and community-driven model of impact to include support for upstream and community-based initiatives that promote prenatal and infant health. The Committee will maintain representation from public and private sectors—including City and County government, health care institutions, and philanthropy—while broadening its decision-making to include Black leaders of nonprofit organizations that promote community health, grassroots organizers, faith-based leaders, social service executives, and policy experts.

“The appointment of new Executive Committee members marks an important milestone for First Year Cleveland,” said Mitchell Balk, President of The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation and Chair of the FYC Governance Committee. The Governance Committee was charged with appointing the new Executive Committee members through a community-wide search and public nomination process. “This group brings to the table a remarkable depth and breadth of leadership, a diversity of experiences, and a commitment to addressing racism, toxic stress experienced by Black people, and other upstream factors that contribute to infant mortality in our community.”

The full press release can be accessed here (PDF).

The Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition is calling upon the Senate Appropriations Committee to launch a new, $100 million National Lead Safe Home Fund within the Department of the Treasury.

The National Lead Safe Home Fund would provide flexible grant funding to proactively support low-income property owners in making the necessary home repairs to prevent lead poisoning. Many local municipalities have worked to enact statutes that require residential lead hazard inspections, remediation, and certification of lead-safe status, especially in rental properties. However, currently existing resources to support property owners—many of whom are low-income themselves—are not adequate to meet the need. Often, loan criteria cannot be met or the process for accessing funds can be so challenging that the remediation ultimately does not occur.

The new National Lead Safe Home Fund would enable trusted non-profit organizations across the country to disseminate funds to property owners to remediate lead quickly and effectively while also creating sustained jobs for local contractors, inspectors, and other lead safe work professionals. This funding source would complement ongoing efforts through HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes and enable local communities to leverage investments from banks, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), nonprofit health systems and other private-sector agencies to create new home repair financial products that include low-cost, low-dollar loans, grants, and incentives to support home repairs.

In 2020, the Coalition launched a local Lead Safe Home Fund, a first-of-its-kind, public-private partnership that provides incentives, grants, and low-interest loans for low-income property owners to assist with remediating the homes they rent and comply with Cleveland’s new lead safe certification law. Financial supports can be used for inspections, assessments, and the remediation of lead hazards. The Fund is administered by CHN Housing Partners, in collaboration with Environmental Health Watch.

Nearly 100 partners across the country submitted a letter of support to Sen. Sherrod Brown and his Senate colleagues. That letter can be accessed here (PDF).

The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation and its grantmaking partners submitted  sweeping testimony to the Ohio General Assembly on the State Senate’s substitute bill for the biennial budget.

The Foundation’s remarks highlight urgent matters concerning:

• Affordable housing;
• Medicaid redetermination;
• Conscience clause;
• Step Up to Quality (SUTQ);
• Municipal taxes; and
• Broadband access.

The full written testimony can be accessed here (PDF).