Grantee: Global Perinatal Services
Timeframe: October 2021 – April 2022 | Amount: $22,500
Nimble Grant funds will support Global Perinatal Services’ participation in the Doulas for All Coalition, where they are currently informing the development of the statewide Medicaid reimbursable doula program.
In the 2019 legislative session, Global Perinatal Services (GPS) with the Doula’s for All WA coalition successfully advocated for a statewide Medicaid reimbursable doula program, which passed the state legislature. Since the passing of the bill, the Doulas for All Coalition is now working actively with the state to develop and implement the program statewide.
GPS will use the funding to pay for staff time for the Doula Program Coordinator, Executive Director, and doulas to attend the Doulas for All Coalition meetings monthly, which is a base requirement of participation. In addition, GPS will be sharing information regarding the program with the families they serve and the doulas they work with. GPD will gather feedback from staff and doulas for meetings to help inform the coalition’s development of the statewide implementation work plan.
GPS will also have meetings with doulas to gather direct feedback on the program’s structure. Given GPS will eventually be working with the State to participate in this program, they are putting their doulas and communities at the forefront of the decision making process.
The policy development work will then feed back into the larger Doulas for All Coalition.
At GPS, dismantling health disparities and inequities is one of the core objectives. To do this, GPS puts into practice the phrase “for the people, by the people”. GPS trains, hires, and employs members of the communities they serve to implement holistic and culturally responsive programming. All of the doulas speak the languages of their clients and would be able to share critical information with them in a culturally competent manner.
About Our Grantee
Global Perinatal Services
Global Perinatal Services (GPS) is a Black, female, and refugee-led nonprofit located in Federal Way. Founded in 2018, their mission is to provide perinatal services, family support, and parenting and birthing education for low-income, immigrant and refugee communities in the Puget Sound. GPS was founded out of a need identified in the Somali community around a lack of culturally relevant care for expecting mothers. GPS also provides community health workshops and community-based doula training. In addition to their direct community outreach and services, GPS is represented in birth equity policy development tables as an advocate for their communities serve.
