Former Youngstown grocery store to become clinic in effort to improve infant mortality rate

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – Health officials are looking to drop the number of infant deaths by repurposing a former grocery store into a new clinic on Youngstown’s south side.

Mahoning County has the third-highest rate in Ohio of infant mortality among Blacks. Fifteen out of every 100,000 Black children die before age 1. For white children, it’s under 5 out of every 100,000.

It’s an issue health officials have been dealing with for a decade.

“We have seen our white infant mortality go down but we have yet to see our Black infant mortality, and the gap just keeps getting larger,” said Youngstown Health Commissioner Erin Bishop.

The former Bottom Dollar grocery store on Youngstown’s Glenwood Avenue has been vacant for ten years. Now the plan is to turn half of the building into an infant mortality clinic focused on Black women and children.

“What we know is that there’s multiple reasons but the number-one reason is racism,” said Dana Langford, CEO and medical director of the Village of Healing Center in Euclid, Ohio.

The Euclid center is focused on infant mortality among Blacks. Langford plans to open another in the former Bottom Dollar building.

“It is a beautiful site that Youngstown is putting forth, all the way down to a play area for the children,” she said.

The Village of Healing Center in Euclid staffs a nurse midwife, a women’s health nurse practitioner, a family nurse practitioner, two mental health providers and an OB/GYN when needed. The entire staff is Black.

“Our system provides our providers with comfort and safety. As a Black provider, you just don’t get that in predominantly white institutions,” Langford said.

When Black women and children show up at the center, they’ll be greeted immediately by the experience of the Black family.

“We try to highlight Black art and the Black artists who are local so that all of our artwork looks like the patients who are coming in the door,” Langford said.

Last year, the Village of Hearing’s full-term birth rate was 95%. Langford says the goal of some programs in Cleveland has been 80%.

“It is absolutely better, and we are proving that Village of Healing is the solution and our system is the solution,” she said.

On Wednesday, Youngstown City Council approved spending $1.5 million to renovate the building. That will be done first.

The Village of Healing Center plans to open in November of next year.

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