Meet Angela Newman-white of First Year Cleveland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Newman-white

Hi Angela, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As long as I could remember, I knew that my life’s purpose was to help people. As a young college student at Bowling Green State University, I began my journey pursing a bachelor’s degree in social work learning about how to work with individuals to identify and address their needs. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I found my place in the Sociology department. I was fascinated by the impact of social systems and policies on individual behaviors. Having a better understanding of how our society perpetuates a significant power imbalance allowed me the opportunity to uncover the root causes of true inequities and find ways to address them.
My first position out of college was a Child Care Worker at local group home, providing support to children who suffered trauma. Though I was honored to be a positive mentor for these young boys, I was more focused the cause of the trauma, than the treatment for it. After I short while, I transitioned to a Community Support Specialist at a local mental health organization to support adults with mental health diagnoses but quickly realized that the majority of the population we served suffered extreme trauma, thus impacting their ability to navigate their daily lives. Again, I find myself more focused on the why.
The quality of my service and my overall capabilities were noticed by a colleague who referred me for a position at a local community center to supervise an infant mortality reduction program, MomsFirst. I knew nothing about infant mortality, but my skills and interests proved to be of value and I was offered the position. Learning that Black women were three times as likely to suffer an infant death than white women was confusing to me. Why has this been happening in Cleveland and across our state. In just 10 short months, I was able to make substantial improvements to the program that yielded better outcomes. Because of this, the Director of the project created a position for me in administration at the Cleveland Dept of Public Health. I was able to implement key strategies to enhance program delivery and outcomes and expand services to families in Cleveland. My passion for the work was noticed by another colleague who encouraged me to transition to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. This position would allow me to do more work in the prevention space to serve families, and it did! During my tenure, I expanded the scope of my team from 2 programs to 9. I had the honor to create, implement, and support strategies with and for the community. Being recognized for the impact I was making, I was asked to consult with a local team led by City and County government to identify and address the gaps in our continuum to pregnant families and the result was the establishment of First Year Cleveland, a collective impact organization aimed to mobilize communities around a shared strategy to address the racial disparities in infant mortality. The organization was created in 2015, and in 2022, I was recruited to become its next Executive Director.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Any time you are working to ensure equity and justice, the road is never smooth. To do this work, everyone has to be all in. The funders need to flexible and responsive, the policy makers need to be inclusive and equitable, the systems need to be transparent, the community leaders need to be collaborative, and the families we serve need to have trust. Though you may not even get everyone on board, much can be accomplished with those who share the same vision.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about First Year Cleveland?
First Year Cleveland is a collective impact organization whose mission is to ensure that every baby celebrates their first birthday, particularly Black babies. We focus mostly on policy, advocacy, and fundraising to ensure infant vitality in Cuyahoga County. First Year Cleveland does not provide direct service but does provide capacity building for grass roots organizations through grant-making, training, and technical assistance. Housed at Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, we engage in applied and/or systems research that provide a benefit to community without exploitation.

First Year Cleveland is committed to policy change that address inequities and discrimination as the solution. We acknowledge the value of direct service programs but understand that those who benefit are only those served. To ensure a population level impact, policy changes that support children and families are imperative. We are so proud of our efforts to engage with families around civic engagement and support families to use their voice. First Year Cleveland not only has a local policy agenda, but we also have a statewide policy agenda for housing, basic needs, and maternal mental health. We have successfully executed two statewide Infant Vitality Advocacy Days and look forward to the third in 2025.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me is perspective transformation. We live a country that believes that if you just follow a roadmap, you can achieve anything, placing the responsibility on the individual. I believe that we need to change our perspective from individual responsibility to systems’ accountability. Poor health outcomes, homelessness, and poverty are not choices for most, but consequences from a system that does not ensure necessary support structures like healthy food access, livable wages, or quality and affordable housing. Maya Angelou said, “If we know better, we do better”. I believe that if people really understood the “why”, we would more effectively dismantle and rebuild systems that value all its people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.firstyearcleveland.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firstyearcleveland/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/firstyearcleveland