RESILIENT ETHER
“After the storm, you dance in the rain puddles.”
When asked to describe what Resilience meant, this was one answer shared by MCC staff. As I reflect on the past year and take stock of our current moment, it is an image that has stayed with me.
In the face of systemic inequities, MCC’s capacity to endure, thrive, and provide ongoing, high-quality services has not and will never waver. With the families we serve as our focal point, MCC continues to build, support, and move forward, even while contending with uncertainty. This year's theme of Resilience, drawn from our Strategic Plan, is infused into every facet of MCC’s work and is the essence of what keeps me here.
When I came to MCC eight years ago, I realized that I had been hiding my authentic self behind decades of outward success, personal hurt, and trauma. In solidarity with the MCC community, I found healing and a renewed purpose to stand in my truth. I aim to make the conscious choice, every day, to dance in the rain puddles.
This year’s theme of Resilience affirms our deeply held commitment to our communities, while honoring the profound resilience families display and our belief in empowering parents as catalysts for change.
Each year, I cherish the opportunity to look back on all we have accomplished — despite obstacles we’ve faced. Whether it’s a light storm or a downpour, we must take time to dance in the puddles, celebrating our community and fortifying alongside our partners, donors, and funders for challenges that will come our way.
Over the last year, MCC began implementing our new Strategic Plan for 2025-2028, prioritizing Organizational Resilience, Thought Leadership, and Economic Security for the families we serve. Revenue grew from $18.1M to $22.1M.
Thanks to your commitment, we raised a record amount of unrestricted dollars.
In our direct service programs, the Doula and Lactation Community Health Worker training expanded to three additional counties, catapulting our ability to provide 1,002 families with doula and lactation services. And through our behavioral health services, we provided mental health and well-being support to 591 families dealing with substance use, depression, anxiety, trauma, and incarceration.
Through our community-level work, we hosted five community baby showers and attended 373 outreach events.
Last, on a policy and advocacy level, we expanded our role in providing leadership for regional and statewide coalitions to improve outcomes and reduce health disparities, while continuing to advocate for statewide Paid Family Leave.
MCC is and faithfully remains resilient because of the families, our staff, and you, our community of donors, who will stand with us. Please join us for another year of impact, as we continue to weather the storms and dance in the puddles.
Warm regards,
Marianne A. Fray President & Chief Executive Officer Maternity Care Coalition
Note:
Numbers are before final audit and GAAP adjustments which will exclude in-kind. Revenue reflected above does not include multi-year gifts.
Over the past year, MCC provided services to 5,264 families through culturally and socially responsible programming.
87% of participants in our home visiting and safe sleep programs were placing their babies to sleep on their backs.
Of home visiting participants at high risk for perinatal depression, 74% were no longer at risk at their final screening.
Since 2021, MCC's budget has grown from $12.9M to $22.1M, allowing us to serve more families in additional counties.
Help deepen MCC's impact!
Visit our donation page to support our annual fund.
“MCC’s mission,” says Iliana, who has been connected to MCC for 20 years, “is all about walking alongside families and helping them build resilience.”
Along with a deep commitment to the families we serve, Iliana has developed her own incredible personal resilience over the last two decades. In 2005, Iliana was "drawn to MCC because of its heart and mission…. [their] commitment to equity, dignity, and care really spoke to me.” Iliana continued supporting this mission as an MCC staff member through 2016, during which time she welcomed twin sons and began her own parenting journey.
In 2022, one of Iliana’s twin boys passed away after a two-year battle with cancer, and her other twin passed away from the same cancer in 2023. During this unimaginably difficult time, Iliana found her way back to MCC, becoming the Bilingual Community Resource Advocate as part of the Community Engagement Services team. Working with MCC families as she grieves her own children has been transformational for her: “This work helps me heal. I see that same strength in the families I support: parents who keep going, who fight for their children, and who find courage in community. MCC’s mission is all about walking alongside those families and helping them build that resilience.”
Iliana’s own definition of resilience is both hard-won and deeply personal. To her, resilience means “finding the strength to keep going, even when life feels unbearable. It’s showing up in the middle of grief and pain and still choosing hope.”
Today, Iliana works to connect MCC families to vital resources, meeting them where they are and ensuring that they feel supported and empowered. She believes that MCC can help families stay resilient by building strong and trusting relationships, establishing a community presence that families can lean on, and then showing up consistently.
“ “ When people feel seen, respected, and supported not just once, but over time, they're better prepared to face uncertainty.
- Iliana, MCC Community Resource Advocate
Noemi was newly pregnant when she came across an MCC flyer in her Philadelphia neighborhood.
She had just moved and had been searching for resources that would help her as she entered parenthood. The MCC flyer caught her eye because it was in Spanish, her first language.
Before connecting with MCC, Noemi had trouble finding resources in the language she felt most comfortable. When she met Mayra, MCC’s Bilingual Parenthood Education Specialist, Noemi found the support she’d been missing. Through MCC’s Community Parenting Classes, she found material resources as well as connection and camaraderie. “For me, it's better to talk about my emotions in Spanish,” she says. “Mayra felt like family, to tell the truth. When I was pregnant, she made me feel heard and seen.”
Noemi faced a challenging pregnancy. She needed to be hospitalized and on bed rest for pre-eclampsia. Ultimately, Noemi had to undergo an emergency C-section and NICU stay for her son. Despite the immense stress of that pregnancy and postpartum experience, MCC’s support services and Mayra were with Noemi and her family every step of the way.
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My message to the MCC community is that this program saves lives and that it has helped me be strong.
- Noemi, MCC client
1,390 1,390
PARENTS ENROLLED
Today, her family is thriving. Noemi speaks enthusiastically about all that she has learned in MCC’s parenting group, from feeding and what to do when a baby is choking, to the importance of taking care of yourself as a parent, too. Mayra has been there for her through it all, helping her apply for stable housing and feel confident as her baby grows up. They continue to stay in touch after Noemi's recent completion of the parenting classes. in parenting, lactation and childbirth, and reproductive health community education groups
1,002 families matched 1,002
161 with doula services and lactation support
to be doulas 161 individuals trained
With a commitment to ensuring communities have access to supportive networks and high-quality services that address the social determinants of health, MCC's policy and advocacy work is growing! While changing laws and increasing public investment are at the core of our work, we recognize that strong communities are the critical bridge between our work with parents and families and our work with lawmakers.
Last year, MCC's Policy and Advocacy department began work on an important new project: building and leading the Southeast Regional Maternal Health Coalition. This coalition is designed to implement community-level recommendations from the Pennsylvania Maternal Mortality Review Committee Report based on the most pressing needs in Southeastern Pennsylvania. MCC is partnering with community-based organizations, public health departments, hospital systems, and lived experience experts from across our region to identify impactful strategies and promote collaboration to ultimately improve birth outcomes across Southeastern Pennsylvania.
We arrive to this work at a pivotal moment in time — the rate of maternal mortality remains high. In Pennsylvania, mental health conditions, which include substance use disorder, are the leading cause of maternal mortality, representing nearly half of the maternal deaths, according to the most recent Maternal Mortality Review Committee Report. At the same time, we are monitoring the disturbing trend of hospital closures and threats of disinvestment in Maternal and Child Health funding at the federal level.
With this work, MCC is growing our commitment to and investment in community-level engagement and fostering collaborative coalitions across diverse stakeholders. legislative visits and policymaker meetings policy webinars policy roundtables 57 3 6 57 3 6
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