Background:
The South Los Angeles Best Babies Collaborative (SLABBC) was formed in 2005 under the First 5 LA Healthy Births Initiative. It is administered by South Los Angeles Health Projects (SLAHP), a community-based unit of the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The SLABBC aims to collectively develop and implement a multifaceted program to promote healthier pregnancies, birth outcomes, and interconception care in South Los Angeles through strengthened linkages and integrated, coordinated and comprehensive services. Partners include: MotherNet LA, South Central Family Health Center, SHIELDs for Families, SLAHP and Watts Healthcare Corporation.

Objectives:
Participants will learn strategies used to reach underserved, at-risk, low-income, Latina and African American women and teens in South Los Angeles to promote healthy behaviors and access to care between births.

Methods:
Enrollment, outreach and education are conducted by SLABBC staff at various community and public health settings including prenatal/postpartum clinics, schools for pregnant and parenting teens, substance use and diabetes education programs, and WIC. The target population includes low-income African American and Latina teens; substance users; and women with diabetes, hypertension, or other chronic conditions that increase risk for poor birth outcomes. Materials and curricula are developed collaboratively, targeted, and adapted for the specific sub-populations served. Outreach and retention strategies focus on reaching women and delivering services at sites convenient to the clients to facilitate ongoing follow-up.

Results:
The SLABBC links diverse agencies, each of which builds on their own unique capacity to conduct inreach and outreach and deliver tailored care management and social support groups to distinct hard-to-reach populations. Partners meet regularly, collaboratively develop and share tools and resources, conduct staff training, and address challenges. As of June 2007, the SLABBC provides care management and referrals to 150 clients to ensure timely and appropriate use of prenatal and interconception care services and to optimize health status during the interconception period. Demographic, health and psychosocial data, care management goals, outcomes, and referrals are monitored via an on-line tracking system.

Conclusion and implications for practice:
The SLABBC has effectively leveraged resources to recruit at-risk clients and provide quality interconception care services.