一起来吧，罗伯逊 helps rural mothers and children

In rural Robeson County, if you don’t have your own ride, it’s tough to get anywhere.  

That’s one of many barriers that residents encounter when seeking health care services. Robeson County’s robust and diverse community infrastructure includes many people and organizations working to dismantle these barriers and others that are more systemic: poverty, 歧视和缺乏可用资源.

在这些组织中有一个背后的团队 一起来吧，罗伯逊, a community-based partnership with 北卡罗来纳大学系统 schools aiming to improve health outcomes for rural mothers and children. 该团队包括社区中的母亲, 当地公共卫生组织, 北卡罗来纳大学彭布罗克分校和卡罗莱纳大学的研究人员.

该项目是…的一部分 整个社区连接, a Carolina program that seeds community-academic partnerships between community organizations in Robeson and Edgecombe counties and Carolina faculty with the goal of improving rural health outcomes.

一起来吧，罗伯逊’s goal is to improve maternal and child health in Robeson County by supporting mothers’ emotional health and wellbeing from pregnancy through the first four years of a child’s life.

整个罗布森团队包括:

• 艾丽卡的小, director of the Office of Regional Initiatives and director of 健康y Start Robeson at UNC Pembroke.
• April Oxendine, health promotions coordinator at Robeson County 健康 Department.
• Brittany Gordon, director of perinatal services and 健康y Start at Robeson 健康 Care Corporation.
• 莎拉·E. “贝”Bledsoe, associate professor in the 社会工作学院 and co-director of the National Initiative for Trauma 教育 and Workforce Development.
• 安娜羁绊, postdoctoral re太阳城娱乐城 associate in the 文理学院’ psychology and neuroscience department.

Part of Carolina’s mission is to extend knowledge and resources across North Carolina to enhance quality of life for all people in the state. 教堂山之外, that work is best done in partnership with other universities within the 北卡罗来纳大学系统. 《太阳城娱乐城》, 来自北卡罗来纳大学彭布罗克分校罗布森健康起点的合作伙伴, who are deeply experienced in supporting maternal health in their community, are critical to Carolina’s efforts to serve North Carolinians. These partners coordinate to identify health needs in their community and help develop interventions to address those needs.

The team has been working in Robeson County since the 2017 MI-PHOTOS project, 赢得了教务长的职位 聘任奖学金 in 2020. That project laid the foundation for the team to launch 一起来吧，罗伯逊.

“We know that one of the best ways to support children is to support their care providers,布莱德索说. “We have evidence showing that when mothers receive the support and the resources they need to be healthy, 他们的孩子过得好得多. That’s critical to the goal of having healthy people and communities and that’s why this work is important.”

小, 他是罗伯逊健康开始计划的负责人, says they do “anything we can do to make sure that rural mothers have access to health care and resources for themselves and their child.” They provide all-around support to mothers in the perinatal period to help achieve this goal. 有时，这意味着载他们一程. 据利特尔说, transportation is one of the biggest barriers to health equity that Robeson County families face.

为了这个团队, helping to create healthier communities in rural North Carolina is worth every bit of extra effort, Bledsoe说.

“卫生不平等伤害了我们所有人. When children are automatically disadvantaged due to poverty, 地点或歧视, 这不仅伤害了他们, 他们的家庭, 以及他们的社区. It hurts everyone because we’re limiting their potential.”