A Message From Marianne

Dear MCC Community,

I continue to be astounded by the extraordinary work of Maternity Care Coalition (MCC). Since our founding over 40 years ago, MCC has served nearly 150,000 parents, children, and babies. Every fall, I look forward to writing this letter to you, as it gives me the chance to reflect on the year that has passed. I appreciate sharing our many accomplishments, the hurdles we’ve overcome, and the new challenges that lie ahead.

This year we focused on building critical infrastructure to support how MCC will operate post-COVID and beyond. We transitioned to a telecommuting agency where some staff work from home while others continue to work in one of our nine sites throughout the region. We tackled pay equity and strengthened our IT systems so that staff and partners can operate securely and safely. These investments allow our staff to better collaborate and aid in the success stories and outcomes you will read about later in this report.

MCC prioritizes people in all we do, and we have a strong commitment to racial equity. For example, our award-winning Montco Mamas program used Lived Experience Experts and other stakeholders to prioritize the research findings and recommend viable solutions for that community. We believe that parents are the experts in their own experience, and they have the right to set goals for themselves and their babies, free from value judgements and widely held expectations. Advocating for parental autonomy is one of the keys to MCC’s sustained impact.

We are proud to share that MCC’s revenues grew from $13MM to $14.5MM and we are projecting $17MM in revenues next year. We increased corporate sponsor support by 47%, expanded into Lehigh County, significantly grew our evidence-based Healthy Families America (HFA) child abuse prevention program, and gained national attention and funding for our recently PA accredited Perinatal Community Health Worker | Doula Training program. Our Policy and Advocacy Team is also leading the Perinatal Health work for a non-partisan statewide campaign. Our staff continue to be invited to serve as thought leaders, panelists, and contributors in local, state, and national Maternal and Child Health forums.

Finally, we made the strategic decision to exit our administrative headquarters office in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and redirect the higher rent savings into raising staff salaries. We relocated our official headquarters to Kensington, one of the communities where many of our families live.

Undoubtedly, this coming year will hold many more challenges. Our communities are barraged with heartbreaking levels of violence and continue to experience ongoing financial strain after the pandemic. MCC will continue to advocate locally, statewide, and nationally for the rights of our clients. We want equitable access to quality healthcare, doula reimbursement, and protection of reproductive rights for all.

As a mother of three Black sons, I know first-hand the struggles of parenthood. I, like most parents, want our children to have equal opportunities and to grow up and lead safe and rewarding lives. This requires all of us to work together to dismantle the systems that are preventing equity and justice for all. Please join me in this critical work to build a world where every parent can birth with dignity, parent with autonomy, and raise babies who are healthy, growing, and thriving.

Warm regards,

Marianne Fray, CEO