Why Local Maternal and Child Health
All women, children, and families deserve to be healthy and achieve optimal growth and development in physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual aspects of their lives. Women, children, and families living in urban communities deserve to have their unique health needs met with a just and unhindered path to full-potential. Unfortunately, this is not reality for many.
Local health departments' Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programs are uniquely positioned within urban communities to help tackle some of the most pressing issues that hinder the path to full-potential. Local MCH can play an integral role in convening the right people, organizations, and institutions to make change happen at the local level.
We envision our members as leaders for social justice— steering discussions that stretch the boundaries of traditional MCH and bring together public health, community members and non-traditional partners to tackle health inequities at the local level. We envision our members as leaders in using scientific evidence to advance programs and policies—using data and community input to make decisions, evaluate their work, and broadly disseminate their successes. We envision our members as a strong network of public health leaders—where seasoned public health professionals mentor emerging MCH leaders, where the MCH workforce is well-trained and implementing cutting-edge public health practices, and where the MCH workforce is actively engaging community members.
Get involved with Local MCH on a National Scale
Get more involved with local MCH on a national scale by joining a CityMatCH Action Group! CityMatCH Action Groups give you an opportunity to inform and assist in CityMatCH’s work and time to network with your peers across the country. Being a part of an Action Group is a minimal time commitment (usually 1-2 calls/quarter), but helps to ensure that CityMatCH is providing the most relevant training and information to our members.