Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna invites the public to three community meetings to hear draft recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Disproportionate African-American Child Deaths in Sacramento.

The first meeting takes place this upcoming Monday, April 1 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Greater Sacramento Urban League.

The second meeting takes place April 2 at Paratransit, Inc. followed by the third meeting on April 4 at St. Paul Baptist Church Family Life Center.

The Sacramento County Child Death Review Team (CDRT) found that African American children consistently die at a disproportionate rate higher than all other children. They are twice as likely as Caucasian children to die from a variety of causes before their 18th birthday and represent 12% of our population, and 22% of all child deaths. Deaths caused by third party homicide, infant sleep related deaths, child abuse and neglect homicides, perinatal conditions, and suicide contribute most to the wide disparity.

Supervisor Phil Serna established a Blue Ribbon Commission in 2011 to examine this issue, and in 2012, convened a series of community meetings to seek broad community input. The Commission is comprised of stakeholders, service providers, health professionals, community leaders, policy makers, parents and grandparents. Several subcommittees were formed to focus on particular areas such as maternal and perinatal health, infant sleep related death and homicides.

The draft recommendations will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on May 7, 2013.

For more information about the Blue Ribbon Commission, meeting minutes, and community input from previous meetings, visit www.philserna.net.