The Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition (FKHSC) was founded in 1992, as an outgrowth/extension of the previously named Monroe County Perinatal Network (est. 1987.) The Network’s main goal was to provide needed prenatal and infant care services to the community, yet received very little funding and operated primarily on volunteer efforts. For this reason, our founders were eager to partner together agencies to address gaps in service in maternal, child and family health & well-being.

The community saw a great need for an integrated, cohesive and comprehensive agency to oversee and coordinate the many facets of providing services with a very unique geographic challenge: namely, a series of islands spanning 120 miles and connected only by 42 bridges with limited resources. Thus, the Coalition was born.

Healthy Start Coalitions were created by the Florida Legislature through the vision of Governor Lawton Chiles in 1991 to improve the lives of pregnant women and their babies by establishing 32 Coalitions state-wide that operate on a local level to address the unique needs of their communities. It is the intent of the Healthy Start legislation to establish a system that guarantees that all women in Florida have access to prenatal care and that all infants have access to services that promote normal growth and development. Each Coalition provides community oversight and planning to improve maternal and child health outcomes.