TBF News:
Winter 2025
Our Winter 2025 TBF News focuses on the work in our Child Well-Being pathway, strengthening the people and systems that contribute to healthy childhoods.
IN THIS ISSUE:
CHILD WELL-BEING:
Defining Our Three Fcous Areas
GROUNDED IN RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY:
Maternal Health Equity
BOSTON'S FIRST NEIGHBORHOOD BIRTH CENTER:
Coming to Roxbury in 2026
MAPPING THE CHILD MENTAL HEALTH WORKFORCE:
Creating a Statewide Landscape
INFORMING POLICY THROUGH RESEARCH AND FORUMS:
Highlighting the Child-Care Crisis
ADVOCATING FOR EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE:
Strategies for Children
A PERMANENT LEGACY FOR YOUNG CHILDREN:
A Bequest for Our City's Future
Child Well-Being
The Boston Foundation’s Child Well-Being pathway is focused on the people and the systems that contribute to a healthy childhood through three focus areas.
Maternal Health Equity: In a fragmented maternal health care field, TBF focuses on equipping community leaders who are coordinating efforts across the health-care and social service systems in Greater Boston. “We cannot have a thriving city without thriving families,” says Danubia Camargos Silva, Senior Program Officer. “It is very important to start not when a child is born, but prenatally. We need to be sure our moms are strong.”
Mental and Behavioral Health Integration: “The Foundation is committed to investing in more and earlier mental and behavioral health care for families throughout the prenatal period and early childhood,” explains Antoniya Marinova, Associate Vice President of Programs. “HealthySteps, one of the programs we support, integrates a mental health specialist in pediatric practices, so that physicians and clinicians can support children and their families together.”
Early Education and Care: “The pandemic highlighted the vital role early education and care play in the fabric of our society,” says Camargos Silva. “It’s not just a service—it’s the foundation that supports families, communities and our economy. Now is the time to harness this awareness and drive meaningful, systemic change for both the present and future generations.”
Grounded in Research and Community
In 2019, the Boston Foundation asked Ariadne Labs and the Women’s Health Initiative of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to join forces and conduct in-depth research into the gaps in maternal health in Greater Boston. The move was prompted in part by the growing awareness of a maternal health crisis in the U.S.
The researchers found that serious and persistent racial and ethnic inequities and deep fragmentation exist in maternal health in Greater Boston, particularly in social supports. But the work didn’t end with the findings. In 2022, the research project began seeking a community- based organization that could bring people and organizations together to address this complex issue. Vital Village Networks emerged as an ideal backbone organization because of its strong track record and authentic connections to the residents and community leaders it supports.
Serious and persistent racial and ethnic inequities and deep fragmentation exist in maternal health in Greater Boston, particularly in social supports.
Watch this video to learn more about the partnership between Vital Villages and our Maternal Health team.
Vital Village Networks began in 2010 when an interdisciplinary group of practitioners at Boston Medical Center began to search for different approaches to improving health equity. It was founded and is directed by the primary care pediatrician, Renée Boynton-Jarrett.
“We led with listening,” she explains, “and began to learn more about the solutions to complex social threats to child well-being that community stakeholders were leading. Eventually, we forged a series of nontraditional partnerships with community residents, community-based agencies and service providers in diverse sectors.”
Asked about what led her to the work, she says, “I’ve always been dedicated to children and very interested in preventing child abuse, violence exposure and trauma. Pediatrics was my gateway. Over time, it became clear to me that, from a clinical standpoint, preventing child abuse from a clinic is very difficult because usually there is emotional abuse and other things that have been going on for a long time. From a clinical perspective, you’re not best situated even to understand the resources and supports that exist in the community. So, it struck me that in our society we are very well set up to react and less well set up to proactively support thriving for every child.
“It really does take a village for families and children to thrive. In partnership with community leaders, we launched the Greater Boston Birth Equity Coalition in 2024.” The Coalition is composed of diverse community resident leaders, researchers, practitioners, educators, and advocates—all working together to strengthen prenatal, early childhood education, economic security and preventive legal resources that support families and communities. “It is built on the concept of collective, community-
led action to address the crisis in maternal health,” explains Boynton-Jarrett. “We are curating resources and information and developing pathways for culturally affirming care and support for families.”
Boston's First Neighborhood Birth Center
"Midwifery is an evidence-based strategy that improves public health and advances racial equity."
-Nashira Baril
The Foundation is also supporting Boston’s very first Neighborhood Birth Center, which is slated to open in Roxbury in 2026. “Massachusetts lags behind other states in access to community birth centers,” says the Birth Center’s Founder and Executive Director Nashira Baril. “Of the 400 birth centers in the U.S., there is only one in our state. That means that 99 percent of births happen in the hospital, even though most could take place safely outside the hospital with midwives.”
Baril has a master’s degree in maternal and child health from Boston University School of Public Health and nearly
20 years of experience designing and implementing public health strategies to advance racial equity.
“The U.S. has actively divested from midwifery,” she explains, “even though it is an evidence-based strategy that improves public health and advances racial equity. Birth centers are homelike facilities that provide the full spectrum of care. They maintain consistent savings for our health care system and demonstrate better experiences and better outcomes.”
Baril gave birth to both of her children in her own home with the help of midwives. “They trusted me and my body. They familiarized themselves with my home so that when the day of labor came, they could move around like ninjas. Don’t get me wrong: It was hard. But I gave birth on my own terms.”
A sweeping maternal health bill was signed by Governor Maura Healey in August of last year that will allow more people to give birth with the help of midwives. (See details below.)
Mapping the Child Mental Health Workforce
Another focus of the Boston Foundation’s work is mental, relational and behavioral health care from the prenatal months through early childhood. TBF is funding the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC) for its partnership with Boston University to create a statewide landscape of the infant and early childhood mental health workforce.
“Our state is resource rich but siloed when it comes to coordination and alignment and we’re aiming to respond to that through this systems work,” says Aditi Subramaniam, Director of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who is leading the project. “In this first iteration, we are mapping the needs of the workforce infrastructure statewide that supports the well-being of children and their families from pregnancy to age six. Babies and young children thrive in the context of their nurturing caregiving relationships and our goal is to understand all of the workforce resources that can support these relationships to thrive.”
Through a series of interviews and surveys, the project already has completed the mapping itself and now is working on ways to get feedback and share the information. “By focusing on the continuum of care for the promotion, prevention, intervention and treatment serving babies and families,” adds Subramaniam, “we’re identifying place-based and geographical assets and needs. This systems mapping is looking at multiple sectors of care, including early education, home visiting, pediatrics and community mental health.”
Informing Policy Through Research and Forums
In December of 2021, the Boston Foundation released a seminal report titled When the Bough Breaks: Why Now Is the Moment to Invest in Massachusetts’ Fragile Child Care System. It documented the dimensions of the child-care crisis during the pandemic, reporting that the number of available “seats” for young children had fallen by as much as 20 percent in Massachusetts in just two years—seats that might not return.
The report brought together data and interviews from families, businesses, advocates and child-care center staff and highlighted the fact that the strains on the system evident before the pandemic were only exacerbated. Its message not only had a powerful influence on the Foundation’s subsequent approach to early education and care; it helped to inform a movement that would have an impact on public funding for the sector. Ultimately, the funding made available during the pandemic has become permanent support for early education and care.
Recent reports released by TBF have examined the continuing influence of the pandemic on support for the early education and care sector. In October of 2024, TBF released Investment in Early Education and Care: Celebrating Successes by the Rennie Center. Just one month later, TBF released a report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation titled Building Blocks: Status of Child Care Reform in Massachusetts and What Comes Next. That report evaluates how well the state is doing at supporting and strengthening the child-care finance assistance system and what can be done to protect and expand access as COVID-era
funding comes to an end.
Advocating for Early Education and Care
Since 2000, the Boston Foundation’s close partner in advocating for the rights of young children has been the nonprofit organization Strategies for Children. “The Boston Foundation was there at the beginning with the first grant,” says the nonprofit’s Executive Director Amy O’Leary. “It has been a close partner ever since.”
For O’Leary and the early education and care sector, the pandemic came with a silver lining. “Everyone realized that it’s really infrastructure that literally allows society to function,” explains O’Leary. “That offered us the opportunity to leverage the kind of emergency attention that we needed for long-term solutions.”
One of the organization’s projects launched during the pandemic was the powerful “9:30 Call,” which offers those providing and advocating for early education and child care an opportunity to exchange ideas about innovations in the field, funding and pending legislation. Today, the Zoom call continues every Monday through Thursday and is offered in English and Spanish. It has some 2,000 subscribers and about 75 participants daily, including invited guests, such as legislators. “It turned out to be one of the most effective tools available to those with a passion for early childhood issues,” says O’Leary.
Strategies for Children leads a multi-pronged Early Childhood Agenda that has taken the shape of large working groups and powerful coalitions. It addresses multiple components that have an influence on early childhood, such as health, food security and tax policies.
A Sweeping Maternal Health Bill Passes
The Boston Foundation also advocated for An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options, a major maternal health bill, which passed the Legislature on August 16, 2024. The bill expands access to midwives and addresses a number of health concerns during and after a child’s birth. Among other services, the bill will overhaul maternal health practices in Massachusetts and expand coverage for midwifery, birth centers, doulas and screening and treatment for postpartum depression.
“Massachusetts is home to the best health care, but there was work to be done to improve birth options and health equity for families across the state,” said Governor Maura Healey when she signed the bill. “These important expansions in the law will help make it both safer and easier to start and grow a family here in Massachusetts, while making sure that women can make the best health care decisions for themselves.”
A Permanent Legacy for Young Children
Many Boston Foundation donors have a special interest in the Child Well-Being pathway and have participated in dozens of conversations led by TBF on challenges and innovations in the field.
Among the most committed have been Marcia and Lou Kamentsky, who not only have contributed to early education through their Donor Advised Fund but also are leaving a major bequest to support our city’s young children forever. Both retired, Lou after a career as a biophysicist, and Marcia after spending her life as an educator.
“Our greatest resource for the future is children,” says Marcia Kamentsky, “and, as a nation, we’re not focused on what needs
to be done to take care of that crucial resource. We should be helping families provide their children with the best quality educators and spaces for learning, especially children who are challenged in their everyday lives.”
Lou Kamentsky sees support of early childhood as the best investment the couple can make in the future. “Human brain development peaks around the age of three,” he says. “That’s the sweet spot for enabling capacity in intellectual and emotional intelligence. And because we’re leaving a bequest to the Boston Foundation, we know our support will go to children who will benefit most, and we know the Foundation is in a position to share success stories and innovations with the rest of the country and even the world.”
From Our President and CEO, M. Lee Pelton
A more equitable Boston and region really does begin at the beginning—with our youngest community members. If we don’t get that right, everything that follows is harder. That’s why TBF has made Child Well-Being a priority and one of our four pathways to equity. Nurturing healthy communities and healthy environments is essential to our work.
We have a responsibility to address the social determinants of health in our communities, and we also have a responsibility to acknowledge and repair the harm that has been done for generations by below-standard maternal health care for Black mothers.
The time to repair broken systems is now. We must forge new pathways in early education and in health-care ecosystems to ensure that our children are physically and emotionally healthy, developmentally on track and well prepared to thrive in school and adulthood.
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