Yes, may or may not be on the line. I have an 18-year-old son. His name is Makai. My delivery
into bringing him earthside proved to be very traumatic in my earlier years. So by looking at
the things that I experienced within the health system, myself came up with ideas of what I
thought would be helpful in the fourth trimester. I am then connected with other members of the
birth worker community here in Philadelphia and hospital workers and employees to form the
Maternal Wellness Village in 2019 so we can collectively come up with ideas to help eradicate
Black maternal morbidity and mortality. And we have done that by creating a clinical research
child that we are in collaboration with Temple University, cardiovascular risk reduction issues,
diversity, equity, and inclusion issues with the hospital system, and providing doulas and
lactation and therapy support to birthing clients at Temple University. I'm just going to ask you
to slow down a bit because you have such a wealth of experience and this is such important work. I
just want to make sure the board catches everything that you are involved with and
And we'll look to be involved with in the future.
Thank you.
So I'm going to go back to the site.
Or do you want to jump to the floor plans and talk about what you need as far as a space?
So do you currently have a building or a space to provide the services that you're talking about for the Ocean Family Center?
We are currently under contract to purchase 5114 Wayne Avenue. So we're equitable owners at this
point in time. And these are the services and space that we need to adequately meet the needs
of Black burning people in Philadelphia. So explain to the board why you are looking for
a permanent space. Prior to COVID, we had three functional spaces that we were in.
One was in Montgomery County on Old York Road in Jenkintown.
Then I had an office in Queen Village, which was at 4th and South, and another one adjacent
to the offices of Penn Medicine at 8th and Sampson.
During COVID, there was no longer a need to have three in-person locations, so we went
virtual, which did not pose an issue for our clientele, and in that time, we've grown.
At this point in time, we are looking to reconnect with our initial desires, which is to hold
in-person psychotherapy, doula, and lactation support services in which we have been looking
for a brick-and-mortar location for the last two years, which is a part of our five-year
strategic plan. And at this junction, we are on target. So can you explain some of the limitations
that having office space presents with the services that you're providing or want to
will provide and expand. What are the limits in having an office space in some office building
in Montgomery County? So as a reproductive psychotherapist, a lot of the things that we
do are feelings-based. Although we are logical and rational, we want people to have an experience.
And oftentimes when you go into a sterile doctor's office with fluorescent lights,
it looks very medical. When we provide psychotherapy services, it is a more homely
effect. It is a more welcoming effect. It isn't as sterile, and it is something for the community
to thrive in. So as we transition out of this virtual space, in which our clients are ready
as well because we have asked them, and we are no longer willing to turn people down because we do
not have an in-person option, because people are not getting the services that they need because
they're looking to exit from their homes and enter a different place for their healing and wellness.
As we've been on this journey for the last two years, we have sought locations all over the city of Philadelphia.
all over the city of Philadelphia. The one thing that we keep in mind is not just the safety of
The one thing that we keep in mind is not just the city, but also the city.
our staff, but the safety of the surrounding community, which allows us to be in a space
that is welcoming and safe for all of those around, which leads to our desire to be at 5114
Wayne Avenue. So you've been looking for a property for the last two years? Correct.
And you looked at commercial properties? We have looked at all types of properties.
We have connected with those at the Philadelphia Housing Authority to look at the North Philadelphia central area where our geographical location was from Erie Avenue to Girard, from Broad to 33rd, which includes the Strawberry Mansion area.
However, when we were connecting with those at PHA, they did not have a property that could fit our needs that was at least 3,000 to 5,000 square feet, so we continued our search.
I connected with Mr. David Thomas at PHDC, who also let me know that he would look for properties for us, but did not find a space that would adequately fit our needs.
We then connected with Ashton Simmons at Shift Capital, where we were discussing the building, the old Citizens Bank building at Broad and Erie.
However, we were priced out of that building, and the only other options were the industrial sites in Kensington, Fishtown, or Port Richmond, which was well out of the geographical area of the clients that we serve in the community.
What were the other barriers to having something in an industrial area or the other properties that you looked at?
the other barriers proved to us to be funding, not the funding that we can acquire to purchase
the property, but the price tag that it costs to acquire those properties. We could not afford to
purchase the building at 51, at Broad and Airy, the Citizens Bank building. Also, the other
industrial spaces were to be built out as doctor's offices or other office space that did not allow
us to have something as small as 5,000 square feet. And the things that we were finding were
above 5,000, close to 10,000, and even the bank was a stretch at 14,000 square feet.
So funding for us to purchase a warehouse, and even our search in most recent, is $2.2 million,
a million dollars, $3 million. This property fits our budgetary needs. It meets the needs of the
community that also lends to our safety and well-being as staff and community members.
So safety was another consideration or barrier to these other properties?
Correct.
Condition of properties?
So how does 5114 meet the needs of the Ocean Family Center?
take us through the the floor plan layout and i can flip to a a photo again so people can see
what the site looks like and then get back to the floor plans but here we have it it's a
standalone building set back far from wayne avenue open space correct
mm-hmm okay so with that in mind take us through why 5114 is the only building you found in what
did you say your two-year search correct your two-year search with connections with other
entities including pha and trying to locate a property why does 5114 wayne avenue fit this
5114 at Wayne Avenue fits our needs because as you can see with the layout it has a variety of
spaces one being our therapy offices we provide reproductive psychotherapy to parents who are
struggling with the transition into parenthood those who are struggling to have toddlers that
have bad days and they've been crying for hours and they need a place to decompress to talk about
the stressors of parenting. We provide services to dads and non-gestational partners who don't
know how to help and support their mates and the people that they are caring for, and we provide
that psychoeducation. As you can see to the right of the screen in the yellow boxes are our doula
and lactation suite. Everybody deserves to have access to a doula. That is not a luxury service.
A lactation consultant is not a luxury service, and we are here embedded in the community providing
those as well. As you can see, our doula and lactation offices are larger, so they are suites
to include the family aspect with everybody coming in for the visit. The non-gestational partner,
mom, dad, grandmom, sister, other siblings that can help and support in those things.
As you can see in the far top part is my office. I will be on the main floor to help usher in
clients and to serve a purpose to our therapists and lactation consultants on the days that they
are inside of the building. We transition to the lower level. That is going to be our open workspace.
We transition to the lower level. That is going to be our open workspace. As a reproductive
psychotherapist, we have a pipeline with different colleges and universities in the area where we
train psychotherapists under our program to become therapists in the community. So we have
them as interns, and then we hire them as contractors, and then we work for them to be
full-time. So the open space that you see on the lower level will essentially be our bullpen where
all of our interns will sit and some of our administrative offices for our clinical director,
our director of perinatal equity, and our policy coordinator. We want to have the option of having
an outdoor space to walk, to sit that's safe. So we don't have any renderings for the outdoor space.
However, we want to have the option to safely go outside and take a deep breath. If our clients are
too overwhelmed with being in the confines of the building, this area gives a very walkable space
within the property that does not bleed over into the neighborhood that feels welcoming,
that feels green? How many people in our city don't have tree-lined blocks? How many people
don't have grass in front of their house, but they have the opportunity to come to this center for
their maternal wellness of their family and experience it? Eileen, can you go to the interior
renderings, please? Sure. Thank you. So this brings me so much joy. When you walk through the door,
this is what we mean by it not feeling like a doctor's office, but it feeling like somewhere
that is very welcoming, where families will come and thrive. The same families that have been there
for the last upwards of 50 years, bringing their children to drop them off for their daily education
and their childcare centers, and then picking them up at the end of the day. That is the same
target population that we are going to work with. We work with families. We work with those that
are pregnant. We work with the little people who are just trying to gather their big emotions in
a small world. Next slide, please. This is the dual lactation suite that I explained to you.
I also want to reiterate a couple things. We do not perform medical procedures. We are not doing
abortions. We are not collecting bodily fluids. We are not storing bodily fluids. We are not
having babies on site. We are not providing services to those who struggle with substance
use and opioid use disorder. We are not servicing people who need medication-assisted treatment.
We have functioned for the last six years, and I have never had to call an emergency responder
for any of my clients. If the fear is that somebody's going to have a baby on site,
then we can mitigate that and help them get to Einstein and or Temple,
which are both close in our geographical area.
I'm going to jump to the interior just so the board can see how the space is right now.
You have lots of windows.
We are not looking to change anything in the exterior as it has been designated as a historical site.
However, as you can see on the interior, there are very large rooms to accommodate so many little people.
And we will be looking to make smaller areas to accommodate our offices for our clinicians.
So let me ask you, are the services that you're looking to provide in this space, are they being met elsewhere in the city?
This integrated care model is not anywhere else in the city of Philadelphia.
There is not a place where the services that are being offered are an enhancement to the standard of prenatal care.
So clients will go to their obstetric providers, whether it be a midwife or an obstetrician.
They will get all of their clinical medical care there.
We will then help them plan for their birth, give them education on their birthing plan and psychoeducation on mental wellness.
We intend to have other modalities of healing that include body movement with yoga practitioners, being able to somatically heal as a modality for clinical therapy.
I like to tell people that if you have kids, you have and understand the stressors that little people can bring to your life.
And what we do is provide a safe and brave space for you to say, my kid's not being nice to me today and I feel victimized by them.
What am I supposed to do?
That is what we help the community do. We help our families be better parents because they have an outlet to actually say, I'm struggling with parenting today. How do I support my child that is neurodivergent? How do I cope with the fact that my child had an autism diagnosis? How do I cope with the fact that I left the baby, I left the hospital without a baby, whether that child is in a NICU or did not make it? Those are the essential services that we are providing to the community.
So, I think it bears repeating how vital is Ocean Family Center in your estimation.
vital is Ocean Family Center, in your estimation, in this space that you've been working in for so
many years? We have impacted hundreds of lives over the last six years through several avenues.
We catch parents that are young within the school district, provide them with psychoeducation
and support. We also raise awareness in the city of Philadelphia and throughout the Commonwealth,
April 11th through the 17th, every single year, which is Black Maternal Health Week,
that we partner with other organizations around the entire city to raise that awareness,
to create healing spaces for birth workers, and to give our providers the education that they need
to treat Black bodies with respect, morality, and equity when it comes through the door.
We developed this integrated care model as a standard to enhance the standard. So it is our
hope that one day having a doula, lactation consultant, and a psychotherapy are all a part
of the clinical care team that all supports each and every family. So this is vital for the life
and stability of Black birthing families in Philadelphia that also meet the 62% of Black
Americans that are in the Germantown area, specifically in the corridor that we would
like to be in at 5114 Wayne. Okay. So, what was some of your early community engagement
before we came in? Did you engage with the community? Yes. I hope I'm allowed to say this,
and I think I can because she recused herself, but Ms. Taya Nguyen, she's the Executive Director
of the Community Design Collaborative in which we were a recipient of a grant that connected us
with 15 Architecture and Design where they performed our feasibility study for this
particular site. And in that feasibility study, things that came up with just structurally with
the building, plumbing, needing an HVAC system, improving on the interior, some things with the
roof, and then the benefits that it does pose for the community. I want to emphasize that this
is not a recovery center. We do not provide services to those that are struggling with
opioid use and substance use disorder that is outside of our competency and scope. And so it
is to bring these essential tools and modalities of healing to Philadelphia in this way. In the
last two years, we have looked for several opportunities to have this in person, and this
is the ideal space for us. And if you would like a copy of our feasibility study, we have 15 on
the line that can also speak to that, and we can also provide it to you. Okay, so let's now talk
about your operations. Yes. Oh, can you go to that slide, please?
Scroll down. We don't have, yeah, we don't have, we have, we didn't include what your,
what your hours of operation are. We'll just ask you to testify about that. So tell us about your
hours of operation and how you go through your scheduling.
Yes. So I will front load this by saying we are appointment only. We also will still enact a
hybrid model, which means that all of our staff will not be on site every day. We will be open
Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed on Sundays
and federal holidays we currently have 13 staff members and i'm sorry eileen i thought we had a
slide for this so i i don't have the breakdown of the consensus so i think it's about uh we got
five full-time staff about five contractors and no eight contractors after that excuse my math
No, that's okay. All of the staff that will be on site on a daily basis are my directors. My director of perinatal equity, my clinical director, myself as the executive director, and my director of policy and coordinating.
The others that are contractors, which we contract with psychotherapists, we contract with doulas, we contract with lactation professionals.
Those people will come in as their schedule permits.
And we also will provide them a space to have their virtual schedules if they are the ones they need to get out of the house to have their visit and their client is the one who is staying home on that day.
So we have approximately 20 clients that may come in person on a daily basis.
Throughout the day.
Correct.
Okay. And how long are the scheduled appointments?
50 minutes for your therapy session. So we'll give it an hour and five minutes once you check in,
50 minutes for your therapy session. So we'll give it an hour.
leave your session, get back to your car. So people may be on site for a little over an hour.
Our doula visits and lactation appointments are up to 90 minutes because those are a little more
in-depth in the questioning around planning for their birth and going through that. And also the
lactation visits are a little longer because they measure the baby before and after feeding.
But these will be staggered. So if you have somebody coming in for that 90 minutes,
you won't have somebody else coming in until obviously that 90 minutes is up.
Not necessarily. If we have two people that are there to see their doula at the same time,
one will go in each lactation suite or doula suite.
Okay. But not a steady stream.
No. So we won't have 20 people an hour, two to three people per hour,
depending on the clinicians that are on site.
And you mentioned, as did I, that this was a daycare center for many, many years. So you have people coming and going and dropping their children off. Assuming some of your clients are going to be driving, would you anticipate that it would not be a substantial increase in any traffic flow?
It is not my belief that it will be a substantial increase in any traffic flow, because if we think about a traditional workday, which is nine to five, you also give yourself a half an hour hour to commute.
So maybe an eight to six. Our doors close at seven Monday through Thursday.
And so our parking for the clients that we do have should not interrupt the current functionality of the residents that are close by.
It is our hope that we are gone by the time they get settled home, bath, bed and dinner.