HEALTHY BABIES PROJECT INC
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Mission Statement
Healthy Babies Project (HBP), a community-based nonprofit, empowers District of Columbia youth to envision a life beyond poverty and change their life trajectories to build healthy, stable, self-sufficient lives. We equip DC youth with life skills training so they can make healthy choices and prevent teen pregnancy; we provide teen parents with evidence-based and one-on-one case management support so they can build healthy, self-reliant families; and we empower the poorest DC youth with job readiness and advocacy training so they can move out of poverty and into economic independence. Our vision is that the most vulnerable District youth are healthy and self-sufficient.
About This Cause
Healthy Babies Project (HBP), a community-based nonprofit, was founded in 1990 in response to abysmal infant death and low birth weight rates in our nation's capital, then as bad or worse than Third World counterparts at 24.4 infant deaths per 1000 live births. Staff and volunteers reached out to low-income women, men, and families with no access to health care, educational, or social services opportunities and worked to bring them to care. In 2002, HBP began supplementing its one-on-one case management care with classes in childbirth education, health, and child development to young parents. Increasing numbers of young parents led HBP to launch its Teen Parent Empowerment Program (TPEP) in 2003. TPEP grew to become an umbrella program that offers holistic care for at-risk, pregnant D.C. youth. Thanks in large part to HBP and other like-minded agencies, since HBP’s inception the District’s IMR rate has fallen by 70.9% to 7.1 in 1000 and the teen pregnancy rate has declined 78%. Yet the number of teen births has remained stubbornly high in the District’s poorest neighborhoods (Wards 5, 7, and 8), accounting for 71.7% District teen births. HBP has set about to reverse that trend by developing its Life Empowerment Program (LEP) life skills and job readiness project, targeting low-income youth and empowering them to create and carry out a purposeful, individual career plan. Today, HBP aligns all of its resources to serve the whole youth, using evidence-based case management and peer support, grounded in positive youth development (PYD) principles, to equip youth with safe sex, parenting, personal finance, and job readiness skills. In response to the increasing number of homeless pregnant teen moms (30-50% of those served), HBP opened Perennial Transitional House in 2013 and Muriel House in 2020 to provide safe haven shelter while girls transition to parenting and independent living. HBP’s philosophy is to empower both parenting and non-parenting youth with the knowledge and skills they need to make informed health choices, complete an education, and move out of poverty. We work with each youth individually to tackle root problems and remove barriers to health and long-term opportunity, empowering youth to move into a productive life, make responsible choices, and raise a healthy family. To date, Healthy Babies Project has served in excess of 20,000 District residents, partnering with 25+agencies to ensure the poorest D.C. youth develop life skills that build healthy, self-sufficient families and leave behind the legacy of intergenerational poverty.