WEEKLY UPDATE: 10/17/24
On Thursday, October 10, at The Diaper Bank of Connecticut’s (DBCT) 20th Anniversary Rock Your Baby Celebration, Connecticut hospitals were honored with the Community Trailblazer Award in recognition of the Diaper Connections program.
Established in November 2022, the first-of-its-kind Diaper Connections program implemented screening for diaper need at hospitals and leveraged existing local community assets and partnerships to organize distribution channels and distribute diapers in hospital settings, such as labor and delivery units, maternity and pediatric clinics, emergency departments, and primary care sites. The program has distributed over 2 million diapers to more than 2,200 children and their families. Earlier this year, Connecticut hospitals and DBCT rallied lawmakers and state officials around addressing diaper insecurity by announcing the launch of a statewide diaper drive to raise funds for additional diaper inventory.
DBCT commended Connecticut hospitals’ work to engage on the issue of diaper need, expanding collaborations between hospitals and community-based organizations, and collecting and analyzing data related to diaper insecurity, including diaper distribution and health outcomes. The Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA) and DBCT continue to advocate for targeted policy interventions that improve access to diapers for Connecticut families, including advocating to reinstate state funding to support the Diaper Connections program.
