Duval County’s infant mortality rate is higher than average for the state of Florida, especially among Black babies.
The challenges of closing the racial gap and reducing the overall rate of babies who die before their first birthday are the topics of a summit Tuesday in Downtown Jacksonville — the same day that the Jacksonville City Council is expected to approve a budget that eliminates the mayor’s proposed funding for a program to reduce infant mortality.
The Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition’s Community Health Workers program had been funded by pandemic-era federal dollars. Mayor Donna Deegan sought to extend the effort, allocating $310,000 in her budget…