During National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month, the Coalition and community partners trained more than 100 people on safe sleep. The effort was organized by the Community Action Group Safe Sleep Subcommittee to ensure professionals and community members in Northeast Florida had information on how to prevent sleep-related deaths.

A total of 173 people across 19 agencies were trained on safe sleep information during September and October. The safe sleep trainings were held for apartment complexes, Florida Department of Health employees, home visiting agencies, Healthy Start providers, day cares, WIC providers & community members.

October was SIDS Awareness Month, an annual time focused on raising awareness of sleep-related deaths and how to prevent them. Each year, more than 20 babies in Northeast Florida die from sleep-related deaths. Inappropriate bedding, not on back to sleep and not in an infant bed were among the top risk factors associated with these deaths. Comprehensive awareness and informational campaigns have been credited with changing behavior and reducing sleep-related deaths.

The Community Action Group is a group of volunteers working with at-risk families and other partner agencies that takes the annual the Fetal & Infant Mortality Review Case Review Team recommendations based on the death reviews. These recommendations are used to implement and develop street-level outreach activities through several subcommittees.