Detroit Birth and Breastfeeding Hackathon – Day 1

NO WALK-INS – APPLICANTS HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE STATUS OF THEIR APPLICATION

Black Mothers’ Breastfeeding Association (BMBFA) in partnership with Black Breastfeeding Week, Harambee Care and Make the Breast Pump Not Suck are working to create innovative and culturally relevant solutions to reduce preterm birth and infant mortality rates that are strikingly high amongst black Detroiters. Using a community-centered approach, BMBFA seeks to create solutions that are driven by families and communities who are most affected by systems that have caused adverse health conditions. High-tech and community solutions will be conceived in a sprint-like design event where community stakeholders and high-tech designers partner to prototype their most innovative ideas to improve black birth and breastfeeding outcomes. The Detroit event will kick-off the annual, nationwide Black Breastfeeding Week, August 25th-31st. 

BMBFA believes healthy babies become healthy children who are the cornerstone of a better future for their communities! The Detroit Hackathon is a pioneering model that impacts the way maternal-child-health solutions are created using a stakeholder-driven approach to collaboratively address existent racial disparities currently impacting equitable access to maternal and child health services throughout the Detroit community. Not only will families inform decisions and plans for their health, they will design the solutions themselves. Attendees will help to scale and/or create high tech products, services and community innovations that support improved maternal-child-health outcomes. 

Furthermore, the Detroit Hackathon will be used as a springboard for innovations in local communities across the nation. As a result of the event, the project team will have a replicable and 

adaptable community-centered hackathon model designed with a birth and breastfeeding equity focus. This model will be turned into a robust toolkit, which will be made available for groups, communities and organizations around the country to support them in hosting their own innovation design events to address the maternal-child-health issues directly impacting their own communities. A prototype of this toolkit will be available to communities this summer.  Learn more. Or apply here to participate in the hackathon.