The Black Professional Magazine - Winter 2023

Pregnant with Possibilities Resource Center (PPRC) partner brunch: Tenisha Gaines (Village of Healing-VOH), Jazmin Long (Birthing Beautiful Communities-BBC), Veranda Rodgers (PPRC), Dr. Heather Rice (Cleveland State University - Researcher), and Dana Langford (VOH).

Black babies born in Cuyahoga County are four times more likely to die before their first birthday than white infants is the first thing you see on PPRC’s home page. It’s the SDOH that causes many Black families to not celebrate their child’s first birthday.

It takes a village to save Black mothers and Black babies. –Veranda Rodgers

The collaboration is described as a sustainable, collective model with comprehensive solutions for positive Black birth outcomes. This ecosystem allows the organizations to communicate to provide education, labor and delivery care/support, mental health tools and techniques and resources to address barriers. Overall, this model allows them to focus on Black families by building equity and breaking down systems that have for decades led to unfavorable outcomes.

Jazmin Long, BBC’s executive director since 2021 mentioned that often philanthropic organizations doing similar work absorb the others or are pitted against each other. “ ‘We fund so-and-so, but we won’t fund you.’ We wanted to come together to advocate for each other and show how collaboration really works,” said Long. “It’s how do we manage and navigate our work, not duplicating services, but they are complementary.”

Through collaboration, PPRC provides education and social support, VOHC delivers medical support and BBC offers perinatal support. They all render additional wraparound services.