Minnesota Infant Safe Sleep Collaborative
Preventing Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths in Minnesota’s American Indian and Black/African American Communities
Background
In the fall of 2023, the Maternal and Child Health Section and the Injury and Violence Prevention Section at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) received a five-year, multi-component CDC grant aimed at enhancing the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of data on sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID). This grant also aims to reduce the disproportionate rates of SUID among American Indian and Black/African American populations in Minnesota.
With funding from this grant, MDH is working with community leaders and organizations to establish Minnesota’s first Infant Safe Sleep Collaborative. This collaborative will lead community engagement efforts in partnership with MDH to prevent SUID in Minnesota.
Learn more about the Minnesota Infant Safe Sleep Collaborative below.
To create Minnesota’s first Infant Safe Sleep Collaborative that aims to elevate community voices and implement culturally appropriate, community-driven solutions to eliminate sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs) in Minnesota’s American Indian and Black/African American populations in the next decade (zero deaths).
The figure below shows the structure of Minnesota’s Infant Safe Sleep Collaborative. The ISSC has four primary arms: (1) MDH Internal Safe Sleep Planning Team, (2) Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team, (3) the Infant Safe Sleep Listening Sessions, and (4) Community Action Teams.
- MDH Internal Safe Sleep Planning Team (Internal Team): The Internal Team was composed of ten individuals from both MDH and the Minnesota Department of Human Services with expertise in maternal and child health. This team was tasked with recruiting community members to serve on the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team.
- Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team: The Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team serves as the advisory arm of the project. It is comprised of an interdisciplinary committee of 20 passionate community leaders and champions from the American Indian and Black/African American communities, as well as allies, who have both lived and professional experiences in maternal and child health. Examples of duties the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team performs include (but are not limited to):
- Guiding the planning, development, and implementation of six community listening sessions to identify evidence-based, data driven culturally appropriate strategies to prevent SUID.
- Providing input and feedback on documents created for dissemination, including community surveys and a strategic action plan of recommendations that was informed by information gathered from the listening sessions.
- Overseeing the creation of two Community Action Teams—one for the American Indian community and one for the Black/African American community—where the strategies from the action plan will be implemented.
- Providing feedback on projects implemented by the Community Action Teams during the implementation phase of the project.
- Infant Safe Sleep Listening Sessions: The Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team oversaw the listening sessions. The listening sessions broadly included a kickoff session to launch the project, four listening sessions— two in-person and two virtual sessions for the American Indian and Black/African American communities— and a strategic action planning session to develop and prioritize recommendations and strategies for implementation.
- Community Action Teams: Two Community Action Teams will be formed to support the American Indian and Black/African American communities in Minnesota. Guided by the Safe Sleep Action Plan, Community Action Teams will design and implement culturally appropriate community projects. Each team will include community leaders with both lived and professional experience, and representatives from the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team. With MDH support, these action teams will develop workplans and regularly share updates on work progress.
The project consists of five distinct phases:
Phase 1: Recruit MDH Internal Safe Sleep Planning Team and Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team
- MDH formed the MDH Internal Safe Sleep Planning Team (Internal Team).
- The Internal Team helped MDH identify, recruit, and form the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team.
Phase 2: Recruit and mobilize community
- The facilitation team led the community listening session planning with input from the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team.
- The Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team, MDH, and facilitation team conducted outreach and recruited community members and stakeholders from American Indian and Black/African American communities to participate in the listening sessions.
Phase 3: Data collection (Community Listening Sessions, survey, SWOT analysis)
- The facilitation team coordinated and implemented six community meetings including one kickoff meeting, four listening sessions, and one strategic action planning session, with support from the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team.
- MDH developed and disseminated a survey to assess the level of safe sleep resources and prevention activities among key organizations working to prevent infant mortality in Minnesota.
- MDH will develop and conduct a Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis among key organizations working to prevent infant mortality in Minnesota.
Phase 4: Develop Infant Safe Sleep Strategic Action Plan
- MDH, the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team, and the facilitation team will finalize a Safe Sleep Strategic Action Plan. The plan will detail prioritized recommendations and strategies to reduce the risk of sleep-related tragedies in American Indian and Black/African American communities.
Phase 5: Implement Infant Safe Sleep Strategic Action Plan
- MDH and the Infant Safe Sleep Leadership Team will form two Community Action Teams to implement the recommendations and strategies included in the Safe Sleep Strategic Action Plan. The two action teams will focus on American Indian and Black/African American communities in Minnesota.
Project materials such as listening session summaries, graphics, Safe Sleep Action Plan, etc., will be shared for public view here. Stay tuned!