Maternal Infant Vitality Initiative – MIVI
Program Contacts
Michele Benko
Supervisor
216.201.2000 ext 1528
mbenko@ccbh.net
Erin Dodds
Program Manager
216.201.2000 ext 1534
edodds@ccbh.net
The Maternal and Infant Vitality Initiative (MIVI) is a collaboration with local partners to address racial inequities in birth outcomes.
The structure of MIVI involves a three-prong approach that includes: Neighborhood Navigation, Local Community Data (Epidemiology) , and Stakeholder Engagement and Service Planning.
Neighborhood Navigation Program
Neighborhood Navigators work directly in high-priority communities to build trust and connect pregnant women and families to essential clinical and community services. Navigators help guide families through services including prenatal care, parenting resources, baby items, mental health, and more. Neighborhood Navigators are trained, passionate, and committed to the health and wellness of their neighbors.
The Cuyahoga County Neighborhood Navigation Program is implemented locally by the team at Neighborhood Leadership Institute.
If you are pregnant or a family with children under the age of 1 year looking to be connected with a Neighborhood Navigator, please call 216-658-1355.
Community Data
We collect and analyze local data to understand the root causes of infant mortality and poor birth outcomes in each community. This includes looking at factors such as access to care, safe housing, transportation, and other social needs. This information is shared through community-friendly tools like infographics, fact sheets, and reports – so families, organizations, and decision-makers can work together to create meaningful change.
To review the most recent Cuyahoga County fetal and infant mortality data points, please visit our Child Fatality Review Data Dashboard.
Stakeholder Engagement and Service Implementation
We convene community groups, service providers, and state-funded programs several times a year to align efforts and plan new services based on data and community feedback. Together, we identify what is needed most and design programs to support and reduce disparities in birth outcomes. This process helps ensure services are community-driven, culturally responsive, and focused on long-term impact.
Local Stakeholder Partnerships
Principles
These listed principles serve as a foundation to help guide MIVI programming work since 2012.
1. Prioritize or focus on racial equity.
2. Build and/or enhance internal racial equity organizational capacity.
3. Respect and follow the people most affected by poor birth outcomes and infant deaths as primary guides.
4. Build power, amplify voices, and elevate communities and residents.
5. Partner with other institutions and communities of color to adopt a shared agenda, goals, objectives, data analysis, use coordinated strategies, and develop consistent metrics to measure progress.
6. Develop and implement locally designed upstream strategies and downstream interventions through community engagement and use of local data to address drivers of racial inequities impacting poor birth outcomes and infant mortality.
7. Serve as a local expert for projects related to infant mortality and maternal and child health epidemiology.
8. Identify clear and effective ways to determine accountability and success.
9. Shared learning.