Healthy Start Gets Continued Funding

Funding is being continued for a Louisville program that focuses on helping at-risk women have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies.Healthy Start is a national program with an arm in Louisville. Officials with the Metro Louisville Department of Public Health and Wellness announced today that the program has been re-funded for the next five years.Director Dr. Adewale Troutman says the local program is only available right now in west Louisville.“The focus is on the neighborhoods that have the highest infant mortality rates, we would love to service the entire community, but we have resource limitations based upon the funding available," says Troutman, "so the focus is on the areas with the highest rates and as we get more resources as we have recently, we move into an area like Newburg.”The Newburg branch of the program opens July first.The Louisville Healthy Start program was first funded in 1998. Since the first funding cycle, annual funding has been one-point-two million dollars.