BECC was created due to the high birth disparities in African American and American Indian communities. BECC offers a safe and welcoming collective community to convene, review data, center families and dismantle structural barriers to health and wellbeing. We do this by hosting a series of community events and meetings in community with BECC’s network of partners to offer resources, advocacy, education and warm hand-off opportunities for Twin Cities residents. We engage parent ambassadors and co-chairs from our Club Mom & Club Dad programs, the African American Babies Coalition and the American Indian Family Center.
BECC is committed to envisioning victories together with residents and community stakeholders. We have an appreciation for actions that integrate both quantitative and qualitative data when setting priorities that are aimed at addressing individual, community and systemic gaps and barriers to health and well-being. The BECC planning team is intentional about collective impact including the setting a common agenda based on strategic planning with and in community, shared measurements based on qualitative and quantitative integration of threading together both the data sets from action team voices and local data; mutually reinforced activities that are happening across the (4) action teams (*Celebrations-convening/partnering and community outreach, engagement and collaboration with parent ambassadors, residents and across sectors; *Centering Father’s Experiences; *Training & *Policy); Continuous Communications across the network to assist in building capacity and support for birthing and parenting families and the consistent Background support of convening and supporting the network with staff, resources and support. numbers and we integrate the By providing input and feedback on linkages, policies, outreach, and community needs.
BECCs mission is “ We are a community of networks woven together to achieve racial equity in birthing outcomes in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties.” The vision is “All babies are born healthy to healthy caregivers, in healthy communities & are given opportunities to survive to age 1 and beyond.” The values that guide us in this mission are our strategic directions: *Promoting BECC sustainability, capacity and support (Increasing Efficiency & visibility); *Acknowledging Mistrust of People within Systems (Improving Transparency & Power Sharing); *Strengthening Collaboration & BECC Partnership (Centering around families-Uniting community & services); *Centering Father’s Experiences (Dismantling barriers/attitudes of exclusion).
Four Action Teams:
Join our e-newsletter list, attend meetings, host meeting locations, become a parent ambassador or co-chair, table at BECC events or reach out for more information at becc@ramseycounty.us