For families experiencing homelessness, a shelter can be a place of safety, but it may not always be equipped to meet the needs of infants.
Global Communities’ Baby Friendly Shelter Initiative helps shelters create safer environments for babies during the most vulnerable months of life. Families experiencing housing instability are more likely to experience preterm birth, low birth weight, chronic stress, and barriers to care, all of which can affect infant health and survival. Homelessness exposes infants to extreme environmental and physiological stressors, therefore, addressing conditions in shelters is a critical part of preventing infant mortality.
The initiative uses a rapid shelter assessment tool to help providers quickly identify opportunities to improve safe sleep practices, lactation accommodations, and services for families with infants. Shelters also receive practical guidance, technical assistance, and resources such as safe sleep equipment and breast pumps. This approach helps facilities make immediate improvements for families while building their knowledge, capacity, and resources to provide safer, more supportive environments.
The initiative grew from Global Communities’ nearly two decades of Healthy Start experience supporting pregnant and postpartum families. Healthy Start is a federal initiative that focuses on reducing infant mortality and improving maternal and infant health, making it a natural partner in addressing conditions that drive infant risk. Through this work, Global Communities increasingly encountered families experiencing housing instability and relying on emergency shelters. Staff saw firsthand how shelter conditions could make it difficult for families to follow safe sleep recommendations, access breastfeeding support, and receive family-centered care.
In response, the team partnered with Healthy Start Consortium members and drew on technical assistance provided through a National Healthy Start Association Policy Innovation Project grant, along with support from local partners, to design and test the initiative. In partnership with shelters, counties, and families with lived experience, the initiative is documenting lessons learned and developing a practical toolkit to help other communities adopt and adapt the model.
The goal is to ultimately create a practical, scalable model that communities can adapt through local and national partnerships to better support infants and families experiencing housing instability. Together, these efforts are laying the groundwork for policy change, tools for replication, long-term reductions in infant mortality, and healthier outcomes for unhoused families.
If you are interested in bringing the Baby-Friendly Shelter Initiative to your community or supporting its expansion, contact Global Communities to explore partnership opportunities.
In-kind donations of unused safe sleep, breastfeeding resources, or baby care items such as bassinets, pack n plays, safe sleep blankets, breast pumps, breast pads, diapers, and wipes are welcome.
