Initiatives / FAAITH and HOPE
FAAITH and HOPE
Every week, families bring their newborns to be blessed. FAAITH and HOPE turns that sacred moment into the start of a healthier childhood.
Dr. Alimayu on RWJF Voices of Vision
Why congregations
The most trusted room a family walks into
Many families, especially Black and brown families, face real barriers to care, from long waits to being dismissed by providers. Public health often plans by zip code. But families describe themselves by their faith, their church, and their people. Clergy are present for the grandmother, the grandchild, and the great-grandchild. FAAITH and HOPE starts there.
What other institution in the community has that level of trust?
The CREED model
From blessing to a healthier childhood
Congregational Relationships for Early-childhood Equity and Development (CREED) weaves early childhood science into rituals that faith communities have practiced for centuries.
- PrepareBefore the blessing, families take part in short sessions on early brain development, safe sleep, and positive parenting.
- VisitTrained members of the congregation visit families at home, bringing trust that outside programs have to earn.
- BlessClergy perform the baby blessing in front of the whole faith community, which surrounds the family with support.
- AdvocateCongregations use what families share to push for fair access to care, services, and resources.
Faith leader training with a verifiable micro-credential
On-demand training prepares faith leaders to bring the model to their own congregations and networks. Those who complete it earn a verifiable digital micro-credential they can share with their congregation, partners, and funders.
The research produced a clergy curriculum, a parent leadership series, a racial equity survey, and a systems change guide. Details are available through Systems for Action.
The story
A pastor, a researcher, and a question
Rev. Dr. Darrell LaRue Armstrong has pastored Shiloh Baptist Church, Trenton’s first Black Baptist church, since 2000. A former assistant commissioner over New Jersey’s Division of Child Abuse Prevention and board president of the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children (APSAC), he saw each baby blessing as a missed chance to share what science knows about a child’s first years.
Dr. Alimayu, then directing networks and policy at the HOPE National Resource Center at Tufts Medical Center, partnered with him to formalize that work into a model any faith tradition could use. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, they tested it together as co-investigators.
The FAAITH and HOPE filmPremiering soonWatch
Hear it from the people who built it
Dr. Alimayu on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Voices of Vision series, and both Systems for Action webinars on the research.
Work with FAAITH and HOPE
Bring the model to your community
The research recommends taking CREED into clergy training nationwide. Here is how organizations take part.
Clergy training
Prepare your ministry team, and earn a verifiable micro-credential.
Join the training list → For seminariesCurriculum
Bring the curriculum into schools of divinity and religious training programs.
Start a conversation → For health systemsPartnership
Partner with trusted congregations to reach families your system does not reach today.
Explore a partnership → For eventsKeynotes
Invite Dr. Alimayu to speak on faith, child development, and health equity.
Book a keynote →Start here
Bring FAAITH and HOPE to your community
Share a little about your congregation or organization, and Dr. Alimayu and the FAAITH and HOPE team will reply within two business days.
Read the research
Evidence brief and webinar
Systems for Action published the FAAITH and HOPE evidence brief in May 2025 and featured the project in research-in-progress webinars in 2023, 2024, and July 2026.
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Questions people ask
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