Rising Communities (formerly Community Health Councils or CHC) has been committed to advancing positive systems change since its inception in 1992, following the 1992 Civil Unrest. Specifically, CHC was created as a recommendation to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors by the Task Force on Health Care Access. The Task Force recommendations were in response to the growing health crisis to support planning, resource development, and policy education for South Los Angeles. Please visit us here, to learn more about our history and role in advancing numerous initiatives locally and across the state of California.

In 2018, LA County Department of Public Health’s Center for Health Equity used a community-based approach to engage stakeholders in developing an action plan to address several key areas to improve public health. One of these areas included addressing infant and maternal mortality. COVID only exacerbated already-identified pernicious health disparities, like death during childbirth. Overall, the figures remain sobering. In LA County, we have 4 deaths for every 1000 births and in the African American community, we have 9 deaths for every 1000 births. The Center’s action plan was only from 2018-2024 but the advisory body voted to extend the action plan through the end of 2024. We have an amazing opportunity to build on the incredible foundation that the Center for Health Equity has established. We have decided to commit to a goal that challenges us to address all the social determinants of health with a fierce focus on safer births from preconception to post-partum care.

As a trusted coalition builder, grant maker and educator, Rising Communities will ReImagine MotherHood by advancing Rising Communities’ Model for Community and Social Change to build a coalition of stakeholders using community-based participatory approaches to inform the development of a county-wide strategic plan. The coalition will bring together disparate services and initiatives under one unified goal to end infant and maternal mortality, diligently working to creatively close disparities. Our Model for Community and Social change was published as an educational article in 2011 by Lark Galloway-Gilliam and our current Board Chair, Dr. LaVonna Blair-Lewis, Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. This model includes all the important elements of a theory of change including building a community-based group of stakeholders and working with those stakeholders to identify what is important to them. We have implemented it for 30 years with partners ranging from the Centers for Disease Control, LA Care Health Plan, Kaiser Permanente, The California Endowment and others.

Once the ReImagine MotherHood Coalition is convened, and a strategic plan developed, we will advance a longitudinal research study in partnership with LA County’ Independent Review Board (IRB) to continue documenting and learning what strategies are working towards ending infant and maternal mortality. Our Model for Community and Social Change includes data collection and analysis to inform the strategic planning process. The ReImagine MotherHood Coalition of partners will be built around learning and adapting in real time to our environment and the needs of moms, babies and their families. Our study will take an action research approach. Action research allows us to take action during the implementation process. We want to implement important things we learn immediately. Another way of explaining our approach is the practitioner-researcher model. This model allows us to work on the project and be an evaluator at the same time. Both action research and practitioner-research allow us to work with moms, providers and others to collect data together through listening sessions, surveys and interviews. We want to learn what actions we can take that will have the greatest impact on our goal. We will know that our model is working when people start to change the way they work. Strategies that show a strong correlation with decreasing the risk of dying during childbirth will be highlighted. By 2050, each of these working strategies will provide a playbook for how Los Angeles ended this preventable problem.

ReImagine MotherHood Ally

as an Ally, you are simply adding your name to the pledge and setting a collective intention to end infant and maternal mortality in LA County by 2050. We hope to get every Los Angeles County resident to add their name to the pledge because we all know, it takes a village to assure our families have all that they need to live healthy, happy lives! As an ally, you will be added to the ReImagine MotherHood distribution list and receive updates and invitations about the progress of the initiative.

ReImagine MotherHood Coalition Member

as a Coalition Member you may be an individual stakeholder or a representative of an organization or body that is actively contributing to closing disparities that directly impact infant and maternal health. Anyone who pledges as an Ally may also apply to be a member of the coalition to ReImagine MotherHood. The coalition will have an expansive membership with a goal of including representatives of cities across LA County, healthcare providers and health plans, educators, birthworkers, mothers, fathers, public health stewards, community-based organizations and more.

ReImagine MotherHood Contributor

as a contributor, you may want to participate by contributing time, talent and money to support ending infant and maternal mortality by 2050. Examples of contributions may include grants, program related investments, individual donations, major gifts, corporate sponsorships, probono consultants to contribute a relevant skill that helps to achieve coalition goals. There are many ways to support this initiative, and we will be open to receiving whatever gifts are shared.

We will build a brighter future for all families by ReImagining MotherHood and modeling a replicable, sustainable system of care where the loss of life at the onset of life becomes an exception to the rule, not an acceptable consequence of the birthing experience.

Let’s ReImagine MotherHood together!