News

Jan 27, 2020

Community Action Akron Summit was recently awarded renewal funds and expansion from the Ohio Commission on Minority Health for 2020 to replicate Pathways Community HUB, an evidenced based model to decrease infant mortality.

Community Action Akron Summit has received the grant since 2016; however, this year’s funding allows for the project expansion to serve more pregnant women.
Since its initial funding in 2016 from the Ohio Commission on Minority Health, we have also received funding from Medicaid, Community Services Block Grant, Huntington Foundation, and Summit County Public Health.

The initiative serves all at risk women, but we target African American women due to the disproportionate impact that poor birth outcomes and infant mortality disparities have in that specific target population.

Since the inception of the Akron Summit Pathways Community HUB, there have been 538 births and 90% of the babies were born full term and normal birth weight. The Akron Summit Pathways Community HUB network has served over 2,000 women.

Community Action Akron Summit coordinates and operates the network with Akron Children’s Hospital, Child Guidance and Family Solutions, Fame Fathers, Summit County Public Health, AxessPointe, Minority Behavioral Health Group and Summa Health; each partner employs Community Health Workers (CHW’s) that work with women every day to ensure that the necessary resources and services are in place to support a healthy pregnancy. The funding also provides support for training, technical assistance, data analysis, outreach services and project management for the network.

“We are pleased to be a part of the Commission of Minority Health funded HUB network in Ohio that continue to demonstrate results to address the needs of the community, said Malcolm J. Costa, President and CEO of Community Action Akron Summit. “The Akron Summit Pathways Community HUB has proven in research that the model is scalable and able to address a multitude of community issues such as infant mortality”, stated Costa.

Infant mortality is defined as the death of an infant before one year old. African American babies are dying at a rate of 3x higher than white babies in Summit County. In 2013, Ohio had the worst rate for African American infant mortality in the country.