The marginalization of communities of color in the current health care system has created glaring inequities. The 2009 mortality rate for Bridgeport African American infants is over 70% higher than the rate of white infants and the rate for Latino infants (7.6) is 23% higher. Thirteen percent of Bridgeport African American women and 17% Latino women had late or no prenatal care, compared to 11% white women. State and national data indicate that African American and Latino children fare far worse than white children.
Improving access to care is the first step to an equitable health care system. Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition (BCAC) will execute an outreach and educational campaign within these communities. For this campaign, BCAC will engage community leaders to expand the knowledge base and reduce fear to accessing health care. BCAC will serve as a source to the community for information and education about accessing health care and safety net services and be a conduit between health care workers and Access Health CT and the Office of Health Care Advocate (OHA) to identify best practices and address policy and/or system changes that are needed to improve and ease enrollment.
This grant will support BCAC in developing and implementing an educational outreach campaign in minority communities, with special emphasis on the Latino population, to expand health equity.
Other Grants: