November 2023 Update

While the fourth Thursday in November gets circled on the calendar for most Americans, it is the following Tuesday that resonates with nonprofits as a day of giving back through Giving Tuesday. While not as commercial as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday is just as consumer-driven, providing givers with the opportunity to register support for an organization that speaks to them through cause and impact.

There are more than 12,000 nonprofits in the Kansas City metro, many of which will participate in this year’s Giving Tuesday on November 28. Many nonprofits are grant-reliant, fulfilling set requirements that do not allow for much deviation. For many organizations, funds raised on Giving Tuesday provide greatly needed flexibility to expand services in a way that predetermined terms of a grant might not.

At Nurture KC, we began offering group counseling sessions to mothers suffering from postpartum depression. Mother’s Voice, or La Voce Madre, has been an invaluable service to our mothers, providing peer support and empowerment to address mental health and other life challenges. Mother’s Voice was not funded via grant but through discretionary funds that allowed us to tackle an important need. It is in this spirit that Nurture KC will be a steward of your Giving Tuesday contributions. We are always seeking to meet the current needs of our participants so that these families may thrive.

I hope you will join me in designating Nurture KC as worthy of your investment by giving here.

Tracy Russell

Executive Director, Nurture KC

Follow our Giving Tuesday campaign

Each Tuesday for the rest of this month, we will highlight a mother who has benefited from our Healthy Start program on our social media platforms:

• Facebook -- Follow us @NurtureKC
• Twitter -- Follow us @NurtureKC

We hope you read and share these heart-warming stories each week, and consider making a donation on our Giving Tuesday page. These moms and families are why we do the work we do at Nurture KC.

Healthy Start serves pregnant women and their children, to the age of 18 months, connecting them to vital resources and providing education to have a healthy pregnancy and get their children off to a healthy start in life. Learn more at https://nurturekc.org/solutions.

Helping Another Hospital with Safe Sleep for Babies

Congratulations to our latest Nurturing Safe Sleep Champion - North Kansas City Hospital & Meritas Health! Staff is teaching parents safe sleep practices for their newborns per standards set by Cribs for Kids.

Nurture KC helped the hospital develop new policies, educate staff and develop educational materials. Learn more and see all our Nurturing Safe Sleep Champions at https://nurturekc.org/solutions/safe-sleep/.

Do you know the ABC's of Safe Sleep?

To promote Safe Sleep Awareness Month in October, we held a contest among our Healthy Start families to send us photos of their babies sleeping safely. Our three winners (pictured above) were chosen at random to receive $50 gift cards to Walmart.

The ABC's of safe sleep are:

• Alone -- Babies should sleep by themselves, in a separate space, at nap and bed time. Do not share a bed.
• Back -- Research shows that placing babies on their backs is the best to reduce the risk of suffocation.
• Crib -- Babies should sleep in an empty crib (or bassinet or pack-and-play) and the space should be clear of bumpers, loose blankets and stuffed animals.

Membership News

Thank you to Elizabeth Simpson, who joined at the Donor Level, and to Linda Stinnett for renewing your membership this past month.