First Year Cleveland

Community voice is a powerful driver of change. First Year Cleveland prioritizes the input of our community in everything we do. From health care providers who share trends they’re seeing and challenges they face in their work to the families who’ve lost a baby too soon, we center our work on the experiences of those indirectly and directly impacted by infant mortality.

Read more about our work amplifying community voice in our 2025 Impact Report: https://firstyearcleveland.org/impactreport/

Please join our colleagues from Cuyahoga County Board of Health in partnership with Healthy Birth Day, Inc. and Count the Kicks, to increase fetal movement awareness and reduce fetal mortality. Complete this brief survey through mid-June: bit.ly/4fYyY9I

Our June newsletter highlights upcoming opportunities to engage in this work through in-person meetings and events taking place throughout the summer. Read it here: bit.ly/4dHFQH9

If you haven’t already, please join our email list to get the next newsletter straight to your inbox! bit.ly/subscribe-FYC

First Year Cleveland - June 2026 Newsletter June is here!! Summer breaks, vacations, outdoor activities, and most importantly, Father’s Day! In the maternal and infant health space, dads are sometimes left out of the conversation. We tend to focus our efforts on mom while she is pregnant and then the baby when they are born, which, in some ...

In 2025, we hosted four quarterly community meetings and facilitated three Funders Forums to help foundations and nonprofits work together to build capacity for infant and maternal health. Over 300 care providers, students, policymakers, funders, and community leaders engaged with us throughout the year to learn more and take action.

Read more about our work aligning diverse efforts in our 2025 Impact Report: https://firstyearcleveland.org/impactreport/

If your organization…
👨🏽‍🍼Supports expecting and new dads
🫶🏾Is interested in enhancing supports for fathers

Join us next week on Thursday, May 28 as we explore opportunities to strengthen connections and engagement with dads in Cuyahoga County. RSVP here: bit.ly/4cR9hWK

We’re thrilled to announce we’re now populating a new and improved version of First Year Connects, a resource app for pregnancy and parenting through baby's first year. The app will launch this spring. Register your organization today!

Submit your organization’s information here: bit.ly/3PuFg6j

We’d like to extend a huge congratulations and thank you to Deyshanna Birch, our intern who just graduated last weekend!

Even if you didn’t get a chance to meet Deyshanna during her time with us, you likely know her work–always excellent! She’s been a pivotal part of the team, from creating databases to designing outreach campaigns, and volunteering with us. One of her first projects was to create a patient advocacy toolkit that is still a valuable resource on our website today.

Deyshanna graduated with her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Sociology on the pre-law track. She's taking a gap year (or two) before attending law school with the end goal of working in health policy. We wish her all the best on her future endeavors!

A community’s vitality is linked to the well-being of its youngest and most vulnerable members. When families have the support and resources they need to grow, they are better situated to unlock their potential and realize a vibrant, healthy environment. We track infant mortality and infant and maternal health trends in Cuyahoga County to better understand the greatest threats to babies and our community’s health overall. We then focus our efforts and resources where there is the biggest need.

Read more about how data informs our work and the key trends we track in our newly released 2025 Impact Report: bit.ly/42FXapT