The Finger Lakes Regional Perinatal Forum

The hope of the Perinatal Forum is that by working together towards common goals, the various “stakeholders” in the Finger Lakes Region can better understand each other’s strengths and issues, and pool available resources and talents to work toward improving perinatal outcomes.

The Finger Lakes Regional Perinatal Forum is co-led by the Perinatal Network and the University of Rochester Medical Center. The Forum:

Identifies regional perinatal needs
Works collaboratively to identify groups and resources to help address these needs
Aims to improve perinatal outcomes
Is open to anyone who works with, or has an interest in, pregnant or newly parenting women
Serves the nine county Finger Lakes Region including Chemung, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Schuyler, and Yates.

The Forum meets three times annually –in January, May, and September. The meeting location generally rotates among Dansville, Penn Yan, and Rochester. Meetings are usually from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM and the agenda is:

Registration, networking and coffee
2-3 presentations
Breakout sessions
Wrap-up and evaluation

The Finger Lakes Region Perinatal Forum funds mini-grants aimed at improving perinatal health (including prenatal, neonatal, or both) in the Finger Lakes Region. Potential areas to be supported include improved delivery of services, education, optimizing specific medical interventions, and program evaluation. Any forum member may submit a grant proposal. Requested funding can be up to $5000. Collaborative and regional projects or projects that can eventually be extrapolated to regional application are strongly encouraged. Review criteria include regional scope, collaboration, feasibility, relevancy to the mission of the Perinatal Forum, potential impact, and replicability.

Information on the website

See the Finger Lakes Perinatal Programs web-site for more information about the Forum, including future meeting times, minutes, presentations and handouts from past meetings, mini-grant applications, and more.