Project Description:
1. Need: The Jasmine Project, a family oriented health initiative, focuses on reducing racial disparities in Black infant mortality and improving health among infants, pregnant women, and women who are between pregnancies. The Jasmine Project provides services in 3 zip codes (33054, 33055, 33167) in the Miami Gardens, Opa Locka, and North Miami areas of Miami-Dade County where on average Black infants are more than 2 times as likely to die in the first year of life compared to White infants. Black infants living in the project area also have higher rates of low birth weight and preterm births.
2. Overall Goals and Objectives: The Jasmine Project offers specific service activities based on a life-course approach that attempts to promote health and development over the course of the mother and infants life, not just during pregnancy. Services are provided within a model that considers community and social factors that contribute to health disparities, and emphasizes cultural sensitivity and empowerment. Activities occur through home visits and at collaborating healthcare and community sites in the project area. Services include maternal and infant health education during and after pregnancy, family planning, reproductive health education, depression screening and referral, healthy infant care and parenting, smoking cessation and substance abuse screening and prevention. The project also focuses on enhancing community awareness of disparities in Black infant mortality and infant health through community health fairs, neighborhood outreach, and direct collaboration with African-American organizations, health providers, and other community organizations in the Jasmine Project neighborhoods.
3. Unusual Features: The Jasmine Project uses research and evidence based interventions to address racial-ethnic disparities in birth outcomes in Miami-Dade County.
4. Expected Benefits: It is anticipated that the Jasmine Project will reduce racial disparities in Black infant mortality and improve health outcomes among infants, pregnant women, and women who are between pregnancies within the project area.
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas
