The Texas Healthy Start Alliance (TXHSA) members currently include the federally funded Healthy Start projects in the state of Texas - Brownsville, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, and San Antonio. The Alliance addresses community-based maternal and child health issues focusing on promoting healthy lifestyles for women of child bearing age, maximizing participation in prenatal care, reduction of infant mortality, low birth-weight, racial, ethnic, and border area specific disparities in perinatal outcomes.
The Texas Healthy Start Alliance supports best practices for the reduction of infant mortality, low birth weight births, and racial disparities in perinatal outcomes. This model emphasizes both the importance of community-based approaches to solving these problems, and the need to develop comprehensive, holistic interventions that include health, social and economic services.
The Alliance is committed to ensuring that key components of the Healthy Start model are strengthened and promoted throughout the state of Texas. TXHSA will provide a level of leadership and work in partnership with all reputable entities to strengthen the maternal and child health infrastructure, assure the availability and use of medical homes, and build the knowledge and human resources in order to assure continued improvement in the health, safety and well-being of the MCH population.
Core functions of the Alliance include the following:
- Coordination of partnership meetings
- Education and information development and distribution
- Research and development of linkages and network agreements with federal, state, and philanthropic entities
Officers:
Jerry Roberson, President
Deborah Cortez, Vice President
Gerilyn Laurence, Treasurer
Cindi Garcia, Secretary
Staff:
Becky Erickson, Coordinator