Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
Spotlight on Students in The Harvard Gazette: A Summer of Service to Cities
Collaborating Across the Community to Tackle Health Inequities
Highlights
South Yorkshire sees some of the starkest health inequalities in the U.K. One in nine newborns in the county’s city of Sheffield alone did not have a safe space to sleep in 2023. South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard entered the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative with a priority of making it the healthiest region in the country. Through participation in the program, Mayor Coppard brought together a cross-sector team to collaborate and develop Beds for Babies to guarantee a safe place to sleep for all children ages five and under. Following that success, his organization is taking steps to spread collaboration capabilities across more teams and projects.
£2.2 million
Funding allocated over four years
Building on guidance from faculty, experts, and peers in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative’s Collaboration track, the South Yorkshire team developed Beds for Babies, which will provide a safe bed to any child five and under who needs it. In March 2024, Mayor Coppard announced £2.2 million of funding over four years for the program, which will tackle child poverty levels, reduce pressure on public services, improve child development, and reduce infant mortality.
Beds for Babies was developed with governmental, nonprofit, and private sector partners including Baby Basics UK, Save the Children UK, Sheffield Hallam University, and Ikea.
The South Yorkshire team have built a different way of working at the community level. The project’s partners liaise with housing services, connect families to other services, and deliver trust and stronger working relationships between organizations. And South Yorkshire plans on replicating this approach in other programs aimed at delivering improved health outcomes for children.
Mayor Coppard sees the Beds for Babies program as an important part of the community’s overall health strategy.
This isn’t just about ‘health’—it’s about what this means for the future of South Yorkshire. It’s about our community looking after each other and laying the foundations for a thriving economy.South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard
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