DESTINY STOKES, MPH, JOINS FIRST CANDLE AS PROGRAMS EXPAND
All of us at First Candle are pleased to announce that Destiny Stokes, MPH has joined the organization as Program Director. She was previously Research Manager at Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia, which has been First Candle’s partner in executing a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, focusing on infant mortality in the Atlanta Perinatal Region.
She will be responsible for program strategic planning and management, as well as community and stakeholder engagement. This includes expansion of the Let’s Talk Community Chat program, a community-based initiative providing education and support to families on infant safe sleep practices and breastfeeding.
She holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Promotion and Behavior and a B.S. in Biology from Georgia State University.
Destiny’s deep knowledge regarding maternal and infant health and health equity make her the perfect candidate for this position, and her having worked closely with First Candle for several years is a bonus that will allow her to guide the other Let’s Talk programs successfully.
The Let’s Talk program offers families a chance to discuss and learn about infant safe sleep and breastfeeding, at monthly gatherings in convenient local settings. Sessions are led by First Candle-trained peers, who are joined by doulas, lactation consultants and other local health care resources.
The program grew out of listening sessions we held in 2020 and 2021 with parents and family members in several U.S. locations, where we learned a lot about their infant sleep practices, day-to-day realities, and how they cope with healthcare and safe sleep advice.
Then, in May 2022 we launched Let’s Talk Community Chats, in Harlem, partnering with Hope Center Harlem and with support from the Ryan Wolfe Kossar Foundation.
Since that time, Let’s Talk has expanded to three additional communities in Atlanta and one in Philadelphia. We have reached more than 200 parents directly, and exponentially more through indirect outreach, as families share what they’ve learned with other family members and friends. And their community feedback to us is boosting our skills in reaching future families – a true community-based feedback loop.
Let’s Talk complements First Candle’s Straight Talk for Infant Safe Sleep Program, which began in 2018 and helps healthcare professionals learn effective ways to counsel families in safe sleep practices through awareness of cultural and socioeconomic realities. To date trainings have been conducted in 15 states.
Our work in both Let’s Talk Community Chats and Straight Talk for Safe Sleep brings us full circle with both families and healthcare professionals – by working with both audiences we can share with each the perspectives of the other.
