GISS CENTER / GLOBAL COLLABORATION
Local Wisdom. Global Partnerships. Safer Futures.
GISS Center welcomes community-led organizations, researchers, healthcare professionals, and public health partners across the world—particularly in countries and communities of the Global Majority—to reimagine infant sleep safety through shared knowledge, mutual respect, and locally designed solutions.
01 / Global Partnerships
Centered in local knowledge. Connected across the world.
We are especially interested in equitable partnerships with organizations and leaders in countries and communities of the Global Majority—where lived knowledge, community innovation, and local leadership must shape the solutions.
Across settings, concerns may be described as sudden unexpected infant death (SUID or SUDI), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), cot death, sleep-related infant death, or through other locally recognized terms and classifications. We begin by understanding the language, data, cultural practices, and priorities of each community.
Our aim is not to export a U.S. model. It is to work alongside local experts to explore how evidence, respectful conversations, practical support, and improved systems can contribute to safer infant sleep and survival.
What could safer nights look like where you live?
We want to learn from community leaders, caregivers, clinicians, researchers, and advocates who are already working toward infant survival—and explore what we can build together.
We welcome conversations across regions, including:
These are examples of places where we hope to build relationships, not a list of existing GISS partnerships or a ranking of SUID rates.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Community-led infant health initiatives, professional learning, locally relevant research, and support shaped by health-system realities.
South Asia and beyond
Knowledge exchange that respects local caregiving traditions, social contexts, and priorities for newborn and infant survival.
Caribbean and Latin America
Partnerships that recognize local languages, diaspora connections, family support networks, and community expertise.
Pacific, Indigenous and diaspora communities
Learning across geographies with community-defined needs, including Indigenous leadership and partners in underserved communities worldwide.
Why global collaboration matters.
02 / How We Partner Internationally
Reciprocity, not one-way technical assistance.
GISS Center views local organizations and communities as co-leaders of the work, not simply audiences for training.
Local leadership first
Define priorities with the organizations, families, and professionals who know the context best.
Respect the evidence and the context
Examine local infant death data, investigations, caregiving practices, languages, and available resources before designing activities.
Share decision-making and credit
Discuss roles, benefits, ownership of materials, responsible data use, and recognition of local contributions from the beginning.
Build sustainable learning
Co-develop professional learning, practical tools, community engagement, and evaluation approaches that partners can adapt and maintain.
03 / Shared Purpose
Partnership is how ideas become sustainable change.
GISS Center welcomes community organizations, healthcare systems, professional associations, universities, public health agencies, and civic and service organizations.
Our work connects established safe sleep evidence with the realities families face. Together, we can co-design learning experiences, strengthen family-centered conversations, develop resources, and support changes in organizational practice.
What we bring
Evidence. Community wisdom. Implementation.
Our Afrofuturist SUID Equity Cycle helps partners move through evidence, visioning, co-design, material support, policy and systems change, and equity evaluation.
Dreaming Safe Sleep Futures™ translates these ideas into professional learning and practical conversations that can inform better practice.
04 / Relationships and History
Built through connection and shared commitment.
GISS Center is housed within Baby 1st Network, which provides its organizational home. Our work and our founder’s longstanding leadership also reflect selected past and current relationships across professional, community, civic, and public health settings.
Our organizational home
Baby 1st Network
The Global Infant Safe Sleep Center is housed within Baby 1st Network. This organizational connection provides a foundation for advancing infant safe sleep education, community-driven solutions, professional learning, and collaboration. Baby 1st Network and GISS Center bring complementary strengths to the shared goal of improving infant survival and creating safer futures for families.
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Fraternal leadership & community outreach
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Safe sleep engagement with Kappa Alpha Psi demonstrates the potential of trusted civic networks, fathers, and community leaders to advance infant health awareness and family support.
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Women's leadership & family engagement
National Silhouettes of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.
Engagement with Kappa Silhouettes reflects the importance of family-centered outreach, women’s leadership, and service organizations in bringing safe sleep conversations into communities.
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Statewide collaborative & systems change
Ohio Collaborative to Prevent Infant Mortality (OCPIM)
OCPIM brings together partners across Ohio around community engagement, data, practice improvement, and policies that support infant survival. Dr. Scott’s leadership with the collaborative connects local insight with statewide action.
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Child injury prevention & professional outreach
Safe Kids Worldwide
Engagement with Safe Kids Worldwide reflects a shared commitment to equipping professionals and communities with injury-prevention knowledge and practical approaches to infant safety.
Baby 1st Network is identified above as the organizational home of GISS Center. The remaining relationship descriptions acknowledge collaborative history and professional engagement; they do not imply that each organization currently has a formal agreement with GISS Center or endorses every GISS initiative. Organizational logos should only be added with appropriate permission.
05 / Ways to Collaborate
Find a partnership that fits your goals.
Partnerships begin with a shared challenge and a willingness to listen, learn, and act together.
01
Professional Learning
Host a workshop, keynote, learning series, or customized training for nurses, clinical teams, doulas, public health professionals, and community partners.
02
Practice Transformation
Explore ways to strengthen safer sleep counseling, family-centered planning, resource referral pathways, and measures of changes in clinical or organizational practice.
03
Community Co-Design
Bring families and community-based organizations into the design of relevant messages, practical resources, and supportive strategies.
04
Research & Evaluation
Discuss applied learning, equity-centered measurement, research dissemination, and approaches for understanding how interventions work in real-world conditions.
05
Publications & Resources
Use our books and practical resources to support team discussions, educational programming, or community learning activities.
06
Global Learning & Knowledge Exchange
Explore reciprocal partnerships across countries to understand local terminology and evidence, exchange community-led strategies, and co-design culturally responsive infant sleep safety and survival approaches.
06 / Our Process
How a collaboration begins.
1
Tell us your goal
Share your organization, the challenge or opportunity, who you hope to serve, and your ideal timeframe.
2
Explore the fit
We discuss shared priorities, potential scope, stakeholders, resources, and what a successful collaboration could achieve.
3
Co-design next steps
Where there is alignment, we define roles, a work plan, deliverables, and appropriate ways to learn from the work.
Partnerships are shaped by purpose, not a one-size-fits-all package.
Let's connect
Tell us what you hope to build.
We welcome early ideas from organizations in any country, especially community-led groups in the Global Majority, alongside health systems, researchers, public health agencies, and professional associations.
Use the form to prepare an email to GISS Center. You can review the message in your email application before sending.
Email: info@gisscenter.org
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Shared responsibility. Shared possibility.
Let’s build conditions where more infants can thrive.
Bring your questions, expertise, relationships, and ideas. We are interested in collaborations that honor evidence, center communities, and move toward practical change.