{"id":707,"date":"2025-09-14T06:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T06:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/?p=707"},"modified":"2025-09-19T20:49:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T20:49:03","slug":"nurture-nj-making-new-jersey-the-safest-and-most-equitable-place-to-have-and-raise-a-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenicholsonfoundation.org\/blog\/nurture-nj-making-new-jersey-the-safest-and-most-equitable-place-to-have-and-raise-a-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurture NJ: Making New Jersey the Safest and Most Equitable Place to Have and Raise a Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nFor 20 years, The Nicholson Foundation worked to advance meaningful change in safety net service systems in New Jersey. The 2021 book, Changing Systems, Changing Lives: Reflecting on 20 Years<\/em>, recounts this journey through stories and related text that feature 15 exemplary projects and initiatives. This \u201cThen & Now\u201d blog series highlights a few of these projects\u2014what we funded and why, and how these projects continue to thrive in ways that benefit the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities.<\/div>\n

Nurture NJ: THEN<\/h2>\n

In 2017, the Foundation began looking for grantmaking opportunities at the intersection of two longstanding priorities\u2014health and early childhood. A logical opportunity soon emerged.<\/p>\n

Maternal health was an important public health problem in New Jersey that disproportionately affected populations of color: Between 2014 and 2016 non-Hispanic Black women had about seven times more pregnancy-related deaths than did non-Hispanic White women. Serious injuries during childbirth, such as hemorrhage, told a similar story.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, it was possible to prevent many causes of maternal death and injury. As we explored ways to best focus our grantmaking, one route to improving maternal outcomes became abundantly clear. This route was an unwavering focus on equity to ensure that all women had access to\u2014and received\u2014excellent and culturally appropriate healthcare before, during, and after pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\n
We ultimately developed a variety of partnerships with the state, other foundations, and other groups, with the aim of reaching women who had not previously received concerted and culturally appropriate attention. The result was a multi-faceted initiative consisting of distinct, yet complementary projects operating at different levels, including the individual, community, city, and state.At the state level, we worked closely with Governor Phil Murphy\u2019s administration on several projects. First Lady Tammy Snyder Murphy had made maternal health her signature issue and she reached out to a number of partners and funders, including The Nicholson Foundation, to help plan and carry out Nurture NJ<\/strong>, a multi-sector statewide campaign to improve maternal and infant health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nurture NJ had an ambitious goal: Reduce the maternal mortality rate by 50% and ensure equity in care and in perinatal outcomes for mothers and infants of all races and ethnicities. The Foundation supported Nurture NJ in four ways:<\/p>\n

\n
\n