Inland Empire Black Breastfeeding Week 2020

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

Every year in the month of August the San Bernardino County (SBC) Department of Public Health (DPH) Women, Infants & Children (WIC) Program celebrates Black Breastfeeding Week by hosting an in-person event to educate and empower Black families/mothers to breastfeed and to address barriers they may face. Due to COVID-19, the WIC Program was unable to host an in-person event this year. Because we did not want to disappoint our participants and community partners, we decided to plan a live one-hour virtual social media event instead. The program was coordinated in collaboration with Riverside County and was called the Inland Empire Black Breastfeeding Week 2020. The event took place August 31, 2020 on both Instagram and Facebook where participants and community partners were able to enjoy a celebrity vocalist and engage with Local Birth Workers during a live Question and Answer (Q&A) session. The program provided a culturally sensitive environment and participants were able to receive empowerment boxes that included self-care products, breastfeeding resources, and other needed items. One of the most significant results of the program was an increase of 261 social media followers, which was attributed to sending participants text messages about the event.