County report: decade-long effort to reduce African American child deaths shows mixed results; locally run programs report specific gains

First 5 Sacramento and community partners presented findings Aug. 4 from the multi‑pronged initiative to reduce African American child deaths, highlighting program gains in service delivery and stabilization even as countywide infant mortality rates rose in the 2020–2022 period.

Why it matters: The initiative — a collaboration between First 5 Sacramento, the Black Child Legacy Campaign (backed by Sierra Health Foundation), county departments and community-based providers — aims to reduce preventable deaths for children 0–5 by combining direct services (crib distribution, safe‑sleep education, pregnancy peer support), concrete assistance and systems change. Commissioners were shown program-level outcome data and countywide trend data covering the COVID era, which staff and partners said complicates interpretation.

Program highlights presented to the commission included: - Black Mothers United (BMU): The pregnancy peer‑support program served pregnant people with weekly coaching, doula care and home‑based supports. During the fiscal year, 66 BMU infants were born and “for the fifth consecutive year, there were 0 newborn deaths as of program exit,” staff reported. Looking at births from 2020–2022, evaluators reported one infant death among 241 BMU births (a rate of 4.1 deaths…