Overview: Sankofa Birthworkers Collective held their first community town hall to discuss challenges faced by birthwork providers and brainstorm solutions for ongoing support of membership. The collective was founded in 2018 to provide wellness and dignity for Black birthing families through equitable maternal health systems. Sankofa has assisted in over 245 births and trained over 30 doulas through their community doula program. The event also celebrated Dominnique Green, founder of Mama’s Harambee, a community doula program, and discussed ways to improve Black maternal health.
Alyssah Hall
Sankofa Birthworkers Collective debuted their first community town hall on Jan. 31, where they shared updates on their work, listened to challenges of birthwork providers, brainstormed solutions for ongoing support of membership, and enjoyed brunch.
Sankofa Birthworkers Collective was founded in 2018, by community Doula Deidre Medley Coutsoumpos, Devona Robertson, and Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson (PsyD). Sankofa was born out of the desire for community among Black Birthworkers in the I.E. and the commitment to provide wellness and dignity for Black birthing families through equitable maternal health systems. The town hall was hosted at the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California in Riverside.
“Today is a monumental event because it is one of the first events we’ve had in over a year, specifically to focus on working with the collective to help develop a strategy to build out our provider arm. This organization exists in order to support the provider and pour into the providers as they pour back out into the community,” Coutsoumpos said. “This is one intentional step we are taking currently to hear from the collective,. And, we want to create something that the collective wants, and not what we as a leadership team think that the collective needs.”
Robertson started the discussion by sharing words of faith that were passed on to her by a parent she works with in the community.
“We are in America — [the] thirty-first day of January in Trump’s America, and these [times] feel very uncertain, but it is in who I believe in, it is in the seasons of uncertainty that He strengthens our faith,” Robertson said. “He reminds us who we belong to, and He reminds us that we don’t have to know it all to keep pushing and so we’re doing some pushing on this morning as we gather… to kind of facilitate what the next phase of Sankofa is going to look like with the input.”
Sankofa’s Doula of Operations Chantel Runnels updated the community on accomplishments that Sankofa has achieved. During COVID, Sankofa applied for the Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI), a California state-funded initiative designed to address racial disparities in infant mortality by providing significant support and resources to Black families. With the PEI grant, from 2020-2025, Sankofa has shown up in 32 hospitals across southern California, assisted in over 245 births, and have had over 30 doulas train through the Sankofa community doula program.
“The biggest thing is Black families experience wellness, reduced c-sections, reduced interventions and augmentations, and this was all in the middle of COVID. As high as Barstow, as far down as Temecula, as far out as Blythe, all the way to Pomona Valley, doulas were driving all across both counties, showing up at hospitals, birth centers and at homes and in parking lots,” Runnels stated.
Sankofa has also partnered with other programs and projects like Loma Linda University Community Benefit, Molina Healthcare, Birthworker Mentorship Program, Kaiser Black Maternal Health, and Maternal Mental Health.
The event also celebrated and spotlighted Dominnique Green, founder of Mama’s Harambee (est. 2023), community doula program administrator and member of Sankofa. Green shared that Sankofa is like a home for her because she trained as a doula with them and now as a founder of her own program it’s a full circle moment. Green created Mama’s Harambee to cultivate a space where mothers could find their village.
“I have an eight year old, and I remember how lonely I felt. I didn’t have a lot of friends with kids at that time, or if I did, they lived far. So, the more I got into this work, after I became a doula, I was like, ‘there’s something missing,’” Green explained. “So, as part of my internship, I wanted to start a group and see how it went. And now here we are, almost two and a half years later.”
“We have moms who started as early as two weeks, and their babies are seven months now…it’s just a communal effort. It’s community support, and it’s not even for me, it’s for the people in the community,” Green continued.
The rest of the town hall was led by Amber Bolden, a communication and development consultant, who helped guide birthworkers in creating a framework for solutions in Black maternal health. She separated the group by their work focus: doulas, midwives, lactation specialists and maternal mental health workers. The groups were instructed to brainstorm ideas on how they could improve each area for their clients as well as themselves.
Sankofa will be hosting a Black Maternal Health Week Collective care event on April 17 and a summer town hall in July.