FJP Community Network Grant Winner: Washington City Paper

Elevate mothers' voices through community-driven discussion on maternal health awareness, challenges, and new ideas about treatments.

$25,000

Last year, Washington, D.C’s maternal mortality rate was 36.2 per 100,000 live births, compared to the national rate of 20.7. The rate of maternal death is even higher for black women, who are 3-4 times more likely to die from childbirth. They are disproportionately affected by layers of institutional failure that have led to the multi-decade infant and maternal mortality crisis in D.C. In a city as prosperous as ours, there is no excuse. As a result, our ideal outcome is a community-driven discussion that leads to more awareness about our maternal health challenges, new ideas for how to address them, and a real commitment from our policymakers and business leaders to get something done. We will be the platform that elevates the voices of the strongest community imaginable: our moms.

And we’ve already started. In October, we hosted a free community panel featuring a midwife, a doula, and an obstetrician, all of whom were black, to discuss the impact of our broken system and show us how our system is failing D.C.’s moms. In 2020, we want to deepen our journalism in this area across new platforms, including podcasts, print reporting, events, and digital features, that incorporate D.C. 's mothers and connect them with the leaders who can bring about change. Focusing on underserved but outspoken communities is a core part of our revenue plans as we market our commitment to D.C.’s moms as a key component of our membership marketing strategy and pursue community grants to expand our impact journalism.

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