We are thrilled to announce the recipients of Perigee Fund’s Families at the HEART initiative, supporting community-developed, culturally rooted mental health models that care for families during pregnancy and a child’s first three years of life.
Families at the HEART is a three-year initiative (January 2026–December 2028) providing $425,000 to each recipient, helping their unique model grow.
Over the grant period, each model will focus on strengthening their impact, building financial resilience, and nurturing leadership so more families can access healing-centered care grounded in community wisdom and lived experience.
Families at the HEART Grantees
After a thorough and competitive review process, a final seven were selected for funding. We are honored to support this cohort as they continue to grow their work and help more families in their communities.
License to Freedom — Culturally Rooted Maternal & Early Childhood Mental Health Model (California)
Based in San Diego, License to Freedom serves refugee and immigrant mothers and children (birth to age three) through narrative healing, somatic health, and early childhood development. With HEART support, the organization plans to expand multilingual programming to serve refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Haiti, train additional community specialists, expand reach, and improve evaluation and operations.
Luna Tierra Casa de Partos — Círculo de Apoyo Perinatal: Birth & Beyond (Texas and New Mexico)
Rooted in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands of El Paso, Luna Tierra Casa de Partos offers community talking circles supported by a perinatal health specialist and birthworkers. These circles nurture connection and shared storytelling, offering support to families in the postpartum period, as well as during pregnancy and birth. HEART funding will support this work by training additional facilitators, supporting growth, strengthening partnerships, and developing meaningful evaluation tools.
Mewinzha Ondaadiziike Wiigaming — Gaa-giigishkaakaawasowaad (A Place Where Pregnant Women Gather) (Minnesota)
Located in rural northern Minnesota, this Anishinaabe-grounded model supports families from pregnancy through postpartum through an integrated bundle of care that includes group care, cultural teachings, somatic practices, meal delivery, and lactation and doula support. Community relationships and Elder guidance shape how care is designed and delivered. With HEART support, Mewinzha will strengthen data systems and deepen sustainable, culturally grounded maternal health services, with a longer-term vision to expand access and share learnings with other Tribal Nations, Native-led organizations, and regional and national maternal health systems.
Mom.ME — CARES (Counseling, Advocacy, Resilience, Education, Support) Therapeutic Program (Mississippi)
Serving pregnant and parenting families from pregnancy through a child’s first three years, Mom.ME combines individual therapy, peer and doula support, psychiatric consultation, somatic practices, and an eight-week group series delivered by a multidisciplinary, trauma-responsive team. HEART funding will help strengthen data systems, clarify the model for replication, expand evaluation capacity, and prepare for Medicaid or state contract reimbursement as a sustainable funding pathway.
Pregnant With Possibilities Resource Center — Bloom@PPRC (Ohio)
Embedded in Cuyahoga County, Bloom@PPRC offers trauma-informed behavioral health and wellness supports through a hybrid perinatal program that includes individualized therapy, care coordination, community health worker support, group-based education, and somatic practices. With HEART support, Bloom@PPRC will strengthen data systems, finalize Medicaid and managed-care reimbursement pathways, grow its workforce, and build infrastructure needed to sustain and expand its model over time.
Social Creatures Inc — Bonded by Baby | Vinculados por el Bebé (New York)
This co-designed postpartum therapeutic group model primarily serves BIPOC, immigrant, and low-income families through yearlong, trauma-responsive group care led by culturally matched clinicians. This model integrates relational health supports, wellness check-ins, and care navigation. HEART funding will help strengthen reimbursement workflows, expand facilitator capacity, deepen training infrastructure, and support broader adoption within Medicaid and clinical settings.
TrainingGrounds — We PLAY Center, We CONNECT Family Resource HUB (Louisiana)
Based in New Orleans, TrainingGrounds’ We PLAY Center strengthens the parent–child relationship as the primary pathway to long‑term family well‑being through its We CONNECT Family Resource HUB, which combines play‑based engagement, family navigation, and therapeutic supports such as infant massage, HUG Your Baby, perinatal mental health screenings, and coordinated connections to community partners. Its healing-centered model helps families reduce stress, build emotional regulation, and deepen secure attachment. With HEART support, TrainingGrounds will expand to additional parishes, refine and document the model, conduct external evaluation, and advance policy and financing strategies to embed this model within public systems.
A Note of Gratitude
We’d like to thank our advisors who supported us in the development, assessment, and implementation of this process. Our advisors included: Mike Quinn, Arianna Taboada, Eurnestine Brown, Iheoma U. Iruka, Chandra Ghosh-Ippen, Melesa Love, Dila Perera, Twyla Dillion, Janina Fariñas, Andre Apparicio, Laura Patterson, Tena H. Sloan, Marci Spector, and Louise Langheier.
We also want to extend our sincere thanks to every organization that applied. The strength, creativity, and care reflect both the urgency of this work and the potential for community-rooted healing models to help more families thrive. Interest in Families at the HEART was extraordinary. More than 300 organizations submitted letters of interest from across the country. For more information, feel free to reach out to info@perigeefund.org.