Center for Black Women's Wellness, Inc.

Overview of Key Health Indicators (Reviewer-Assessed: 5 points)

CBWW operates in metropolitan Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, a region with well-documented disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes among Black women. The organization operates from 477 Windsor St SW, Suite 309, Atlanta, GA 30312,¹ where underserved Black women and their families face compounding health and socioeconomic challenges.⁷ CBWW's Atlanta Healthy Start Initiative specifically serves pregnant and parenting women residing in Atlanta or Fulton County with a child under 18 months old.³

The Healthy Start program targets communities where infant death rates are at least 1.5 times the national average.⁴ CBWW provides care to those without health insurance on a sliding fee scale,¹ serving a population whose social determinants—including insurance gaps and limited access to prenatal care³—align with the NOFO's emphasis on communities experiencing disparities in perinatal health outcomes.

Estimated Score: 13/20 (5/5 reviewer + 8/15 HRSA data, conservatively scored pending vital statistics verification)

Approach (15 points)

CBWW's existing Atlanta Healthy Start Initiative demonstrates a comprehensive, multi-component approach to perinatal health. The program provides home visitation services, linkages to health and social services, parent education, health education, breastfeeding support, and mental/emotional wellbeing services.³ Care is coordinated by a team including a compassionate team of nurses, family support specialists and a mental health provider.³

The organization addresses social determinants of health through its integrated service model. Beyond clinical care, CBWW operates the Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency Program (WESSP), a micro-enterprise development initiative providing financial literacy, business development, and technical assistance to low-to-moderate income women.⁶ This economic empowerment programming directly addresses SDOH contributing to adverse perinatal outcomes.

CBWW's Community Consortium capacity is evidenced by its extensive partnership network. The organization's partnership with the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University on environmental health research⁷ demonstrates cross-sector collaboration capacity. InfluenceWatch documents CBWW's role as a partner of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance,⁸ a national maternal health advocacy network.

Work Plan (10 points)

Public data confirms CBWW's operational capacity to deliver at scale. For over 35 years, CBWW has provided healthcare and programs to address the needs of underserved Black women and families across metropolitan Atlanta,¹⁴ demonstrating the throughput required to meet the NOFO's minimum of 700 participants per year. CBWW reopens after expansion⁹ and maintains clinical services infrastructure including a wellness clinic providing well-woman visits, prenatal care, STI screening, and family planning.¹⁰

Resolution of Challenges (5 points)

Estimated Score: 20/30 (Approach 12/15, Work Plan 6/10, Challenges 2/5)

CBWW's data management capacity is evidenced by its participation in the HRSA reporting ecosystem. As a prior Healthy Start awardee (HRSA-19-049), the organization has established experience with DGIS performance reporting, the Healthy Start Monitoring and Evaluation Data System (HSMED), and the CAREWare database system that HRSA provides to all 101 Healthy Start awardees.⁴ The organization employs a dedicated Systems & Data Analyst (Alyssa Lee) responsible for data infrastructure.¹¹

CBWW's Atlanta Healthy Start Initiative demonstrates structured program delivery with defined service components: home visitation, linkages to health and social services, parent education, breastfeeding support, and mental/emotional wellbeing services.³ This structured, multi-component program architecture provides the framework for measurable outcome tracking across multiple service dimensions.

Estimated Score: 6/10

CBWW's potential for impact is grounded in its 35+ year organizational history of serving the target population. The organization was established in 1988 through the National Black Women's Health Project (now the Black Women's Health Imperative) and has operated independently since receiving tax-exempt status in 1996.⁸ This continuity of mission—spanning three decades in the same community—provides a foundation for sustained impact that newer organizations cannot replicate.

As a prior Healthy Start recipient, CBWW has demonstrated sustained commitment to reducing infant mortality and adverse perinatal outcomes in its service area. The NOFO specifically notes that prior recipients should provide Healthy Start benchmark data for Calendar Year 2022, meeting 10 out of 19 benchmarks to demonstrate impact. CBWW's AHSI program provides linkages to needed health and social services including prenatal care, housing, and workforce development,³ directly addressing the service coordination that drives improved perinatal outcomes.

The organization's Community Consortium activities position it to address systemic factors. CBWW's environmental health partnership with Emory produced community-level interventions on toxic exposures—a $375,000 Cedar Tree Foundation grant supporting the Black Women's Environmental Wellness Project⁷—demonstrating the kind of systems-change work the NOFO prioritizes.

Estimated Score: 10/15

This is CBWW's strongest criterion from publicly available evidence. The organization demonstrates deep capacity across every dimension the NOFO evaluates.

Organizational Profile

CBWW reported FY 2024 revenue of $4.91 million, expenses of $3.46 million, total assets of $2.95 million, and total liabilities of approximately $200,000.¹² This financial profile shows a well-capitalized organization with strong revenue growth (from under $2 million in earlier years) and healthy reserves—critical for managing federal grant cash flow requirements. The organization's 501(c)(3) status has been active since August 1996, providing nearly three decades of uninterrupted tax-exempt operation.¹²

Key Personnel

CBWW's leadership team includes CEO Jemea Dorsey, who led the organization through its recent facility expansion and environmental health program launch. The clinical team is led by Medical Director Michelle Staples-Horne, M.D., and includes a Nurse Practitioner (Christabel Okoye, FNP). The Healthy Start program is managed by Rosalind Hill, MPH (Atlanta Healthy Start/Maternal Health Equity Program Manager)—a public health professional with direct program management responsibility. Additional specialized staff include a Systems & Data Analyst, Care Coordinators, Family Support Specialists, and a Director of Strategic Philanthropy.¹¹

Community Alignment

CBWW's organizational identity is deeply rooted in the community it serves. The organization describes itself as a community-based, nonprofit organization in Atlanta with a mission to improve the health and well-being of underserved Black women and their families.⁷ Its leadership team, including CEO Jemea Dorsey and a staff that largely reflects its clientele, brings lived experience to service delivery—a quality the NOFO explicitly values in assessing community-based organizations.

Partnership Infrastructure

Documented partnerships span academic institutions (Emory University), foundations (Cedar Tree Foundation, Susan G. Komen), government agencies (CDC/NPIN registration, HRSA), advocacy organizations (Black Mamas Matter Alliance), and community health networks. CBWW is listed in the CDC's National Prevention Information Network as a registered service provider¹³ and maintains active profiles across multiple social service referral platforms including findhelp.org and GAgives.³¹⁴

Estimated Score: 12/15

The FY 2024 Healthy Start award to CBWW was $1,008,333 for an 11-month budget period, consistent with the NOFO's approximately $1 million per-awardee funding level. The program's total FY 2024 allocation was $105,354,022.¹⁶ CBWW's overall financial capacity to manage a federal award of this scale is supported by its $4.91 million revenue base and existing grants management infrastructure.

Estimated Score: 5/10