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M a r c h 2 0 0 9 • I s s u e 1 5 2 • C i n c i n n a t i ’s A l t e r n a t i v e N e w s S o u r c e
Keeping Babies Alive The secret is helping the mothers succeed
By Stephanie Dunlap Contributing Writer
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nita Brentley had been waiting for the 16-year-old emancipated youth to arrive. “Is this your first? How far along are you?” she asks the young woman, “Neshia.” Yes, it’s her first, and Neshia doesn’t know how long she’s been pregnant. “Have you had prenatal care?” Brentley asks softly. “Have you been to the doctor?” No to both. Brentley guides Neshia through enrollment into the Every Child Succeeds program: “When we say ‘mother,’ we’re talking about you, because you’re going to be a
mother now,” she says gently. There is no judgment in Brentley’s voice or bearing. Later she will tell me that Neshia has developmental problems. Maybe it’s that kind of complete acceptance that’s made ‘Ms. Anita’ beloved as a team leader for the Avondale/Every Child Succeeds Partnership program. Or something about the way she’s relentlessly cheerful or how she freely gives out her cell phone number so young mothers can text her. Or maybe the way she’ll call them first. What happens next is that an Every Child Succeeds (ECS) home visitor will start calling on Neshia once a week or every couple weeks to walk her through every step of pre-
Mothers and children at Every Child Succeeds are defing the odds and beating the high infant mortality rate among African-American children in Cincinnati. Photo by Andrew Anderson.
natal care, child development and parenting until her child is 3 years old.
‘No long-handled spoon’ The thrust of the 10-yearold program is reducing Cincinnati’s high rate of infant
mortality rate by focusing on at-risk, first-time mothers. In 2001 the national infant mortality rate was 6.8 deaths by age 1 per 1,000 live births; in Cincinnati, the rate was nearly twice as high from 19992004, with 13.1 deaths per thousand, according to ECS. The agency says the primary
causes of infant mortality are birth defects, low birth weight and premature birth, smoking, SIDS, accidental injury and abuse and neglect. Through home visits and a meticulously plotted, measured and analyzed curriculum
See Babies, p. 5
Spring Time at the Homeless Coalition New director takes the lead By Gregory Flannery Editor
rugged individualism and focusing on the fact that we all need each other.” Spring succeeds Georgine Ending homelessness requires changes in policy but Getty, executive director of also in the American ethos it- the Homeless Coalition for self, according to Josh Spring, the past six years. Getty is new executive director of the now executive director of the Interfaith Greater CinHospitality cinnati Co“Having a home alition for the should be viewed as Network. Homeless. For the a right – food, water, “I think past two h o m e l e s s - shelter and clothing. years Spring, On a moral level, I ness is somea Xavier Unithing that’s think this is a right.” versity graduate and licompletely ~ Josh Spring censed social solvable and worker, has it doesn’t have to exist,” he says. “We been resident services coordineed more affordable housing nator at Over-the-Rhine Comand a living wage. These are munity Housing. “I’m interested in the issue the two immediate symptoms. I think, in terms of a broad an- of homelessness because it’s a swer, it’s giving up the idea of vast symptom of other broken
systems we have in America,” he says. “Having a home should be viewed as a right – food, water, shelter and clothing. On a moral level, I think this is a right. Legally, everybody should have housing. All entities, private and public, should be trying to make that work. I would say that it should legally be the case that a person has what he or she needs to get by in life.” The personnel change at the Homeless Coalition doesn’t portend a change in its opposition to the city of Cincinnati’s efforts to restrict new lowincome housing and socialservice agencies. Nor does Spring believe the election of President Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress will necessarily end homelessness. “I would like to hope it
Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless. Photo by Aimie Willhoite.
See Spring, p. 5