PAC Awards Second Round of Funding to Accelerate Implementation of Maternal Health Strategic Action Plan
Type: News
Focus Area: Women’s Health
Linked Family Services staff are pictured preparing to help community members at its Tiny Essentials Relief Hub.
Launched in April 2025, the Pennsylvania Perinatal Action Collaborative (PAC) is a multi-disciplinary group dedicated to advancing maternal health initiatives throughout the state. The PAC is tasked with executing the Maternal Health Strategic Action Plan (MHSP), which seeks to improve the health outcomes of pregnant and postpartum individuals in Pennsylvania.
To effectively implement the MHSP, the PAC consists of priority teams focused on five key areas: increasing access to high-quality care, supporting behavioral health and substance use disorder needs, improving rural health and maternity care deserts, addressing health-related social needs and expanding and diversifying the healthcare workforce. Over the course of 2025, PAC members met within these priority teams to create actionable strategies to implement a recommendation from each area of the MHSP. In response, two funding opportunities for Implementation Grants were made available, the first in October 2025 and the second in January 2026. Over $400,000 in PAC Implementation Grants were awarded for this second cycle of funding.
To track work of the PAC to implement the strategic plan recommendations, a dashboard was launched earlier this month on the PAC website.
Expanding and Diversifying the Healthcare Workforce
To address the limited volume and diversity of healthcare workers in Pennsylvania, the Workforce PAC Priority Team focused on the MHSP recommendation to develop healthcare apprenticeship opportunities that focus on training underrepresented populations to expand the number of BIPOC midwives, doulas, community health workers, and home visitors to make maternal health care professions and paid training opportunities accessible.
PatientsRWaiting will receive $50,000 to develop a doula apprenticeship toolkit to increase registered doula apprenticeship programs across Pennsylvania. Based in Lancaster, PatientsRWaiting founded the Diversifying Doulas Initiative which has been addressing the birthing needs of people of color since 2021. Building on their experience creating a doula apprenticeship program, they will investigate statewide barriers to and opportunities for creating an apprenticeship, including workforce development barriers and best practices, by engaging key stakeholders and conducting an environmental scan. Once created, the toolkit will be available to organizations interested in implementing a doula apprenticeship program.
Addressing Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN)
To increase awareness and use of supports that address HRSN, the HRSN PAC Priority Team selected the MHSP recommendation to improve housing and food security and access to transportation for pregnant and postpartum families. The priority team specifically focused on actionable strategies to improve connections between community-based organizations (CBOs) and managed care organizations (MCOs), to increase utilization of the PA Navigate service, to provide support to expand CBO services, and to improve HRSN screening tools.
Community-Based Organizations
The first actionable strategy focuses on providing additional support to CBOs in Pennsylvania that have had an increase in referrals and demand for services around housing, food security, and transportation. Each of the following CBOs received $32,580 to support increased demand for their services:
- ACLAMO will provide care and expand their bilingual capacities to 120 pregnant and post-partum people in Montgomery County over 10 months. This care will help pregnant people progress toward health milestones.
- The Foundation for Delaware County will implement a Family Village Transportation Initiative to address the transportation needs of pregnant and postpartum people in Delaware County to help increase attendance at health care appointments.
- The Family Health Council of Central PA will implement a SafeSeat Connect project, which will provide appropriate car seats and car seat safety education to low-income pregnant and postpartum people at eight Pennsylvania WIC locations.
- Fulton County Family Partnership will institute a Mobile Maternal Safety Net. This program will ensure access to necessary resources and equipment for pregnant people in Fulton, Huntingdon, and Franklin Counties.
- Linked Family Services will expand their Tiny Essentials Relief Hub to increase access to infant essentials for birthing families in Lancaster and the surrounding areas to meet increased demands and referrals from families in need.
- Northern Tier Community Action will increase community access to infant supplies for pregnant and postpartum people by coordinating with Head Start Centers, Food Pantries, and Social Service programs in Cameron, Elk, McKean, and Potter Counties.
- Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania will enhance maternal education and resource distribution, provide workforce training for workforce reentry after birth, and provide a Parent Peer Support program for pregnant and postpartum people across Pennsylvania.
“Too often, families come to the attention of child welfare systems only after they’ve reached a breaking point. But behind those moments are parents doing their best without the support they need—support that, if provided earlier, could change the outcome entirely.”
Peer-to-Peer Exchange
To improve connections between CBOs and MCOs, the second actionable strategy focuses on establishing and facilitating a peer-to-peer exchange among MCOs, their contracted HRSN services, and CBOs (“buddy systems”) to increase awareness of MCOs’ HRSN services and programs, strengthen collaboration between CBOs and MCO case managers, support real-time problem-solving, and identify clear next steps.
The Community Action Association of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence will collectively receive $122,000 to work in partnership to build a Peer Learning Network Toolkit designed to increase collaboration between community-based organizations, managed care organizations, and other maternal health stakeholders in Pennsylvania.
HRSN Screening
The third actionable strategy from the HRSN Priority Team is to update existing HRSN screening tools in Pennsylvania to ensure they are relevant, understandable, appropriate, and informed by people with lived experience. HRSN screens are used by providers to assess a patient's needs, including but not limited to housing, food, and transportation.
Thomas Jefferson University will receive $53,000 to review existing HRSN screening tools, collect feedback from pregnant and postpartum people on HRSN screening questions and processes, and disseminate findings and recommendations across Pennsylvania.
These organizations have been awarded funds as part of the PAC’s Implementation Grants through the federal Maternal Health Innovation Program. These funds were provided through the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The PAC is facilitated by JHF and supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Click here to learn more about the PAC. The PAC is facilitated by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-funded Maternal Health Innovation Program (MHIP).
