Working Together for Babies in 2022

Over the past year, all 39 Bright Cities worked to lessen the harm of neurotoxic chemicals for little ones and their families. This year, Bright Cities awarded $135,000 in grant funding to support cities’ leadership making communities healthier for all babies. Together, we’ve significantly grown our collective impact! 

As the calendar flips forward, we’re sharing our top reasons for hope and celebration in 2023 as we reflect on our accomplishments in 2022, including:

1. Engaging over 400 practitioners to support lead service line replacement
   We connected with ten partner organizations involved in exemplary lead remediation projects — and those with savvy approaches to leveraging historic infrastructure funding —  to design four virtual workshops (recordings here) that will help cities leverage federal funds and replicate successful models of lead remediation. And to help leverage federal funding, Bright Cities awarded $75,000 to five cities to prioritize lead service replacement for expectant families and those with young children (press release available Jan. 13).
2. Reaching city leaders—big and small—through our rewarding partnership with the Mayors Innovation Project
   Together with the Mayors Innovation Project, we awarded six cities across the country grants ranging from $10,000 to $20,000 to help scale and tailor one of five existing strategies to equitably reduce babies' neurotoxic exposures plus resilience co-benefits. Learn what these cities plan to do!
   “I give a lot of credit to HBBF—and the Mayors Innovation Project—for making grant funding available. It really was the thing that sparked my thinking and then made it possible for us to do the development work.”— Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway
3. Highlighting, sharing, and scaling the fantastic work of our Bright Cities via our newly designed website
   We’re thrilled to unveil our new website! As you browse through, you can see that while our goal to protect babies’ brain development remains unchanged, we’ve updated the way we present the problem, the solutions, and the resources. 
4. Assisting city staff to link their climate and toxics reduction strategies via a free Climate Ambassador Training
   At the municipal level, leaders have two clear opportunities to score a win-win for climate and neurological health — by leading to reduce air toxics and drive environmentally preferable purchasing. In partnership with EcoAmerica, we launched a free, virtual, self-paced, four hour training to help you crystalize your understanding of the connection between climate and the neurological health of the people in your communities. 
   Learn about the spectrum of solutions, how to speak effectively on the topic, and pragmatic opportunities to act and advocate.  Access the training here using the code HBBFCfHAmbassador22.
5. Sharing the Bright Cities’ models with national audiences
   Strategies learned from our Bright Cities were presented at the American Public Health Association and March of Dimes Mom & Baby Action network meetings this year. This sharing opened the door to new project collaborations and inspired the creation of a monthly peer-networking call for all Bright Cities partners (email Kyra if you’d like to join). Together we are stronger!

Read more in our Bright Cities case studies to find a place to start and stay tuned for new grant opportunities in 2023!

Is your City interested in being part of Healthy Babies Bright Futures’ Bright Cities program? To discuss this and anything else, please contact Bright Cities Program Director, Kyra Naumoff Shields at knaumoff@hbbf.org.