A new initiative launched today in Albany helps to support low-income mothers during their pregnancy and beyond.
United Way of the Greater Capital Region says the Jubilant Birth program is a public-private partnership aimed at improving maternal health and birth outcomes in Albany County.
United Way President and CEO Peter Gannon says the initiative will provide $1,000 monthly for 12 months to 25 low-income families.
Gannon says the idea is to reduce financial stress during pregnancy, addressing racial disparities and improving health outcomes.
“Criteria right now is the eligibility, because its county funding [and you have to], be an Albany County resident, 300% income at 300% below the federal poverty level, and second trimester of pregnancy. So it remains to be seen if we're gonna be able to find 25 right? We're kind of learning as we go. But the idea would be to, find 25 families in or near that situation and bring them into the program and go from there,” said Gannon.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy says the program may change the outcome of someone’s life.
“When you look from 2016 to 2018 there were 34.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in Albany County. Think about that. These are staggering numbers that we shouldn't have, and it's something we kind of talk about, but we don't address right. Here's an opportunity now to roll up our sleeves, take the party politics out of it, put the human nature back into it, to have a better outcome for that mom and for that baby,” McCoy said.
Gannon says interest in doing a guaranteed income pilot program began in May 2022, eventually morphing into a framework of a team that could execute such a project.
“That happened to be a lot of the same organizations that were active in fighting back against the potential closure of the Burdett Birth Center,” said Gannon.
Instead of closing this past June as long planned, the Troy facility received funding in the New York state budget that will keep it open the next five years. But the situation spotlighted the challenges faced by expectant parents across the region who were unsure where else they would go.
State Senator-elect Pat Fahy, who advocated for keeping Burdett open in the Assembly, says rolling out “Jubilant Birth” couldn’t be more timely.
"If we learned nothing else from this recent national election, affordability is something we're hearing affordability matters. Affordability is causing a bit of a crisis and certainly fueling the divide that seems to be growing every day in this country, and affordability or what we call pocketbook issues. So launching this kind of pilot program is going to be so critical so that we can learn, and not just that we can learn and help those 25 expectant women and families. It's not just about learning, it's about demonstrating, demonstrating, what a difference it will make," Fahy said.
Gannon says a process will be introduced in January to identify and recruit potential participants.
Funding for “Jubilant Birth Albany” comes from several grants including $325,000 from the Charles Touhey Foundation, $200,000 from Albany County, $175,000 from Highmark Blue Shield of Northeastern New York and $5,000 from the Hudson Valley Credit Union.
