Phase IV Capital Campaign: Perinatal Care Center (Opening a Birth Centering Space)
Perinatal Care Center: Phase IV Capital Campaign: $6 million
Urban Perinatal Education Center & Clinic
RI's Perinatal Safe Zone has a home in Pawtucket
Thank you to everyone who joined in this crucial initiative to design, create, and maintain a safe space for Black and BIPOC families along their perinatal journey. We are grateful to our donors and supporters who invested in perinatal equity and safe space.
A special thank you to our Project Manager, Effuahson and the Project Team, C&M Renovations, along with all the other subcontractors. It was a collective effort, the passion and the drive was evident in the details, love, and care poured into renovating our space to welcome families.
Thank you to our key donors: Anon, NPTF, NHPRI, BCBSRI, RI Foundation, and Our Journ3i, LLC.
Special acknowledgement and gratitude to our small but mighty Board. An honor to work with out nationally diverse advisory committee for all the support, knowledge,resources, technical assistance, and encouragement.
Community Stakeholder Support
Our Black and BIPOC workforce with Community
Our new logo sign: HallofGrafx
Open for classes and workshops
The Urban Perinatal Education Center wants to change the way you experience perinatal health, education and services. Family centered, patient driven and community initiated - let's build our future together. Our focus is to address the egregious maternal health disparities, poor birth outcomes and data in Rhode Island.
Our Focused Areas of Impact
Culturally Congruent Care and Community
Representation in health care matters and promotes health equity. Recent research suggest that Black provider based care for Black families can cut mortality rates
Building a Workforce for Change
We know that communities empowered are the drivers for impact. This is more than recruitment but sustainability of both the community and its workforce race based equity pay is paramount to establishing justice.
Supporting Equity in Care
Maternal Health care inequities and disparities remain a symptom of institutional and systematic racism, especially in maternal health. Postpartum studies suggest that extra support and care is necessary to reduce such poor outcomes
Our Programs
Our Action Plan
Phase I: Location (A safe space)
Urban Perinatal Education Center has existed in an online/virtual sphere for the beginning formative portions of its work. The pandemic taught us a lot - we STILL need each other in a physical way of engagement, storytelling and relationship building. We have solidified our plans and pivoted towards direct service care, resources, and support.
We found our home in Pawtucket's Historic Quality Hill. Thank you all our kin-mmunity supporters.
Sustaining.
Phase II: Educators and Workshops
It's in our name! The Urban Perinatal Education Center is focused on evidence based, best cultural practice and relevant education for childbirthing persons. Through empowering and informative education and workshops we can make a difference in perinatal equity.
Our workshops bring together our cultural community in ancestral honoring of educating families through fireside chat storytelling, body/breathwork, healing modalities and teach and tells.
Ongoing.
Phase III:Supporting Equity in Care
Planning and development of RI's first JJWay Accredited Equitable Care Clinic as our maternal medical home, for clinical perinatal care and family services in an urban community setting. Our goals include Midwifery care and licensed perinatal mental health therapist for BIPOC families.
Ongoing.
Equity is a collective action. We need your help!
Sustainable donors are key to our community - become a monthly donor.
"To effectively address the reality of the crisis, philanthropy would have to invest in Black women and provide them with the resources to lead, the sector would have to yield their power and remove themselves to avoid interfering with the work.
Grantmakers have the tendency to group maternal mortality into reproductive health funding or create portfolios focused on maternal child health, with an emphasis on the child, neither allows for the work of Black-led maternal health leaders to base build truly sustainable efforts. " Dr. Joia Crear-Perry