Unsafe sleeping arrangements are a leading cause of preventable infant deaths in Allen County.
To address this, St. Joe Foundation is working with our many community partners in the Prenatal & Infant Care Network on a community-wide Sleep Safely Campaign. This campaign will help ensure that Allen County Parents who have a baby in 2021 will know:
- Babies should sleep alone in a safety-approved environment with a tightly fitted sheet up to 1 year of
- Babies sleep safest on their backs. They should not sleep on their side or
- Nothing and no one should be in the baby’s sleep area/crib.
Also, that all Allen County Babies will have their own crib or pack-and-play to safely sleep.
Key strategies include:
- Raising funds for cribs/pack-n-plays
- Adapting a common “Safe Sleep Curriculum” by community professionals
- Training local pregnancy resources providers and childcares to teach new parents “Safe Sleep” strategies when providing the pack-n-plays
If you want to support the effort, please consider:
- Becoming a Sleep Safely Ambassador: This is a community volunteer that has completed the cribs-for-kids online training and a training event at one of the community’s partnering sites. The Ambassador educates on safe sleep at churches, community centers, gift shops, etc. using the curriculum and one-page handout. For more details, email SafeSleep@sjchf.org
- Making a Donation to provide a crib, essential items, and safe sleep education for one at-risk infant in greater Fort Wayne.
For more information or to join the campaign, contact Meg Distler at mdistler@sjchf.org or Laura Dwire at ldwire@sjchf.org.