In 2008 and 2009, the ICAN Child Death Review Team released information regarding the tragic deaths of infants under one year of age after co-sleeping with one or more adults or other unsafe sleep practices. In April, 2009, the Team recommended a broad multi-agency response to prevent these deaths. The Policy Committee of ICAN adopted these recommendations, encouraging all agencies to collaboratively participate in this effort.

A Safe Sleep Tips Pamphlet was then published through the joint work of ICAN, LA County Department of Public Health and First5LA.  

During the summer of 2009, Los Angeles City Council and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors both joined ICAN in declaring Infant Safe Sleep Days.

On July 14, 2010 ICAN convened the first meeting of the Safe Sleeping Campaign Task Force in collaboration with the Office of Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas. **(Task Force Roster Below)

This task force formed five sub-committees: 1) Evaluation and Investigation 2) Identification of Existing Campaigns and Resources 3) Cultural Challenges and Community Outreach 4) Campaign Slogan Marketing 5) Development of Resources, Funding and Support.

The task force has been actively involved in the pursuit of strategies for the Infant Safe Sleeping Campaign. This has included full task force meetings, subcommittee meetings and community focus groups. In addition, representatives on the task force from multiple agencies have offered their departmental resources in developing training and technical assistance as well as media messages and materials.

The task force meetings have included multiple presentations such as successful campaigns across the country, materials utilized by public health departments, Research on SIDS and unsafe sleeping, and Power Point Presentations on infant death scene investigations related to these deaths.

ICAN has continued to release data on infant deaths related to unsafe sleep practices, most recently at the annual ICAN press conference on April 27, 2011.

The next meeting of the ICAN Infant Safe Sleeping Task Force will be on Wednesday, August 10, 2011.

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