Letter from the Founder

Founder, Judy Bannon

As Executive Director and Founder of Cribs for Kids®, I would like to thank you for your interest in our organization.  Cribs for Kids was founded so organizations, whose mission is to reduce infant mortality through the elimination of sleep-related deaths, would have a resource to help them accomplish this very important goal.  Helping Every Baby Sleep Safer is our tagline.  By educating all caregivers about our infant safe sleep guidelines, adopted from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Cribs for Kids’ goal of helping all babies celebrate their first birthdays will be realized.

Cribs for Kids began as a grassroots effort over 20 years ago in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania.  By making the program available at no charge, offering our safe-sleep products at below retail prices and providing free shipping through Pitt-Ohio Express, the number of Cribs for Kids partners now numbers over 1800 and continues to grow.

Because we believe that Cribs for Kids® is only as strong as its partners, we are dedicated to always being available to answer questions, offer solutions, and provide outreach programs to assure that our partners accomplish their mission of providing education and safe-sleeping environments to reduce the number of infant deaths in their communities.

Knowing that even the most well-intentioned organization in a community cannot alone change the culture of where and how babies are put down to sleep, we have developed programs that will help them reach out to other community partners to accomplish that goal:

  • Our National Hospital Certification Program gives local hospitals all the tools necessary to develop a program that will assure that every healthcare professional, staff member and new Mother, giving birth in their hospital, will be educated about the importance of infant safe sleep.
  • In an effort to better protect infants, law enforcement agencies and first-responders are partnering with Cribs for Kids®, through our National Public Safety Initiative, to expand their community policing policies to provide safe sleep tips and free portable cribs to families in need.
  • Our Managed Care Organization (MCO) Prenatal Incentive Program works with MCOs to provide incentives for expectant Mothers to attend all prenatal visits, helping to assure a good birth outcome.
  • In addition, our Safe Sleep Ambassador Program gives our partners and their families an opportunity to become certified as an Infant Safe Sleep Ambassador.

All of these programs are available to our partners at no cost.  More importantly, the directors of these programs are available to our partners to help them successfully launch these programs in their local communities.

If you are not already a partner and would like to join us in our efforts, just go to “Become a Partner” and sign up today. There is no charge to join us in our effort to save babies’ lives. We Thank you for your interest and the babies thank you too!

Sincerely,

Judy Bannon, Executive Director and Founder
Cribs for Kids® Infant Safe Sleep Initiative