Advancing Equitable Care Through Data-Driven Insights

Healthy Start professional services for data collection and analysis to provide culturally competent case management and care coordination to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities

In partnership with the University of Memphis School of Public Health, the Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) has been awarded assistance under funding opportunity HRSA-24-033 for the Healthy Start Initiative:  Eliminating Disparities in Perinatal Health grant to fund a Healthy Start program in Shelby County called Live Long. 

Live Long’s purpose is to use a community-based approach to reduce infant mortality rates in Shelby County by serving 700 unduplicated participants (450 through case management/care coordination and 250 through group-based health and parenting education) annually by March 31 of each year through 2029. 

Based on the 2019-2021 data, to have the maximum positive impact on health outcomes before, during, and after pregnancy in Shelby County, the stated purpose of the Healthy Start Initiative NOFO, Live Long will cover 38103*, 38106*, 38109*, 38111, 38114*, 38115*, 38116*, 38118*, 38128*, 38135, 38016*, 38018 to specifically focus on reducing the infant death and adverse perinatal outcomes, as, per the 2019-2021 data, these zip codes are the most adversely impacted in Shelby County by infant death and adverse perinatal outcomes. 

To address Live Long's purpose, Live Long has two foci areas: 

1. Providing direct and enabling services to enrolled Live Long participants;
2. Convening a Community Consortium to advise and inform Healthy Start activities and develop and implement a plan to improve perinatal outcomes within Shelby County.

To address focus area #1, the University of Memphis School of Public Health has partnered with LeMoyne-Owen College to recruit ten (10) students with academic and/or work backgrounds in Education, Nursing, Social Work, or a related field to enroll in the University of Memphis School of Public Health and serve as Graduate Assistants (GA) for the Live Long program. 

To ensure that the GAs are ready to provide Healthy Start participants with quality Health Navigation services, the UofM School of Public Health has partnered with the Assisi Foundation of Memphis and Baptist Health Sciences University to provide a combined 120-hour training program.

As Live Long GAs, the ten (10) GAs will receive an annual tuition payment of up to $11,502, and an annual 12-month stipend of $20,738 in exchange for being full-time students in good standing in a University of Memphis School of Public Health graduate program, and 20-hours per week of service as Live Long Health Navigators for Live Long participants.  This GA funding will be available through March 30, 2029, as long as grant funding continues, and the GA remains in good standing.

For more information on this initiative, contact Dr. Ashish Joshi, Dean of the University of Memphis School of Public Health and grant PI, at ashish.joshi@memphis.edu.