Spotlight Interview: Donyella Smith

I am the Family Spirit Home Visiting Supervisor and Health Educator, working on multiple grants for the African American Babies Coalition and Projects. My work centers on addressing family disparities and improving outcomes for families, particularly Black and Indigenous communities. With over 15 years of experience, I focus on linking families to community services that address their needs. As a supervisor for the home visiting program, my primary goal is to enhance parenting knowledge and skills to support better family outcomes.

Wilder African American Babies Coalition and Project Family Home Visiting is a home visiting program designed specifically for Indigenous families. We have adapted the program to also support our African American families. Our goals include enhancing parenting knowledge, reducing maternal depression, increasing home safety, and decreasing internalizing and externalizing problems in infants. Here are some of the core of the African American Coalition Projects – Community Connection: Fostering and sustaining connection and collaboration – Awareness and Education: Providing education training through conferences, summits, and visiting – Activate Community: Youth development and political advocacy for maternal and infant health for black and brown mothers

We are striving to distinguish ourselves from other home-visiting programs by focusing on African American and Indigenous women and families. The Wilder African American Babies Coalition and Projects provides training, education, events and resource distribution focused on building the capacity of health systems in Minnesota to provide culturally sensitive and high quality maternal and infant care to Black and Brown families. We work with nonprofit and civic leaders, researchers, childcare providers, parents and grandparents, and public health professionals from across the Twin Cities who are committed to promoting the healthy development of African American babies. We have the flexibility to listen for emerging needs and implement innovative programs by collaborating with our partners through our Safer Birthing Consortium, which includes providers, community members, and state agencies. AABC and projects offer several curricula not only for home visitors but also for the community to participate in free training. Our Birthing Fruition curriculum and training helps participants develop skills in perinatal care and education for Black and Brown communities. The Moving Beyond Crisis curriculum and training ensure providers working with families through the Family, Friend, and Neighbor, licensed and legally unlicensed care delivery are equipped with essential care components to enhance the early childhood development of young children from, Indigenous, Asian American/P Islander, Somali, and Latino/a communities. Prioritizing the Wellbeing of Postpartum Black and Brown Women: A Guide Connecting Maternal Mental Health to Child Development addresses the significant disparities in postpartum care that affect many African American and BIPOC women. AABC’s Resource Guide to Home Visiting equips Family Support Specialists and Home Visitors with vital tools to foster trust and nurture relationships while providing culturally sensitive support. Trainings occur throughout the year; please visit our website at www.aabcprojects.org.

We do a lot of evaluations; whether it’s our education or our family support programs, we are constantly asking for feedback and make sure to ask participants on a regular basis to provide evaluation data around what is helpful and what is not. This helps us understand which of our programs are missing the mark and which ones are headed in the right direction. 

The African American Babies Coalition and Projects will be expanding our work to a direct service space within Wilder Center on the first floor. We have not yet named the space, but it will serve as a resource center that includes drop-in direct services Healthy Black Pregnancy prenatal, delivery, and postpartum education, a culturally diverse early childhood library space and reading room, clothing donations for pregnancy and newborns to 2-year-olds, and a coaching and resource space for home visitors and health educators. We are still seeking to work with more home participants. Our numbers are increasing slowly, but we hope to gain more traction by spring. AABC will host an open house this spring to reveal the new space.

For more information, please visit www.aabcprojects.org. We also have a Facebook. Contact us through our website to be added our listserv for events, summits, and training sessions.