table of contents

are you looking for a new career opportunity?

discover the rewards of working at MSPCC!

We are excited to welcome the Massachusetts Mind the Gap Coalition into the MSPCC family!

Formed in 2022, the Massachusetts Mind the Gap Coalition is a group of health care organizations, nonprofits, community-based organizations, survivors of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) and/or pregnancy and infant loss, and other advocates working to improve state policies around perinatal mental health. Its work is supported by Postpartum Support International’s national Mind the Gap initiative.

Massachusetts Mind the Gap successfully advocated for the 2024 “Moms Matter Act” — a new grant program investing in community-based organizations supporting perinatal mental health, particularly in historically marginalized communities — in the recently passed omnibus maternal health law. The coalition is now pushing a broader perinatal mental health agenda.

“The Mind the Gap Coalition is thrilled to join MSPCC and to integrate our work with their infant and early childhood mental health advocacy,” said Jessie Colbert, Coordinator for the Massachusetts Mind the Gap Coalition. “We shine a light on the mental health and well-being of new parents. But there is a powerful, nuanced relationship between parents’ and children’s mental health — one that cannot really be separated. Huge thanks to the BlueCross BlueShield of Massachusetts Foundation for supporting this new partnership, and to MSPCC for their warm welcome!”

“MSPCC is excited for this collaboration as it allows an opportunity to make explicit in the policy and advocacy agenda that early relational wellbeing centers on the thriving of both the birthing parent and their baby, within the context of their family, community and culture”, said Aditi Subramaniam, Director, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy at MSPCC. 

The Coalition’s work and this collaboration is funded through a multiyear grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation’s Perinatal Health Initiative, a program aimed at reducing racial inequities in perinatal health outcomes. MSPCC was one of fifteen organizations that received funding during this grant cycle. The work will be led by Colbert, who will work closely with MSPCC staff members Subramaniam and Courtney Chelo, Director of Government Relations.