Pop-Up Village: A New Model of Perinatal and Family Care Delivery

Project Summary

The project team is conducting an implementation and process evaluation of the Pop-Up Village (PV) model to support pregnant people and their families – a one-stop-shop for cross-sector (government/public health, clinical, and wraparound) services. Building on previous and ongoing intervention development, implementation, iteration, and pilot testing, the PV model is designed to meet the stated needs of community members, in a safe, healing, and empowering environment.

Research Question(s)

  1. What elements of the PV model are essential for it to be valuable to recipients? 
  2. What key factors of the PV partnership process and model for care delivery impact experience and sustainability from the perspective of PV providers? 
  3. Does the PV model:
    1. reduce barriers to accessing health and social services?
    2. increase person-centered care? 
    3. reduce experiences of discrimination while accessing care? 
    4. improve the mental well-being of participants?

Actionability

  • Inform SF community members and PV providers on the impact of the PV model on anti-racism efforts, care access, experience, and mental wellbeing.
  • Provide U.S. communities, and local, state and federal policy-makers and payers looking for community-responsive models, process and impact evaluation data to inform transportability and support of the PV model in new contexts.

Racial Equity Implications

The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among high income countries, with stark inequities in this and other critical perinatal outcomes including severe maternal morbidity, preterm birth, and infant death. In 2017, members of the SF Respect Initiative (SFRi) embarked on a one year Human-Centered Design process to better understand, and build around, the experiences of San Francisco residents who face the most severe inequities in pregnancy care and outcomes: individuals insured by Medicaid and particularly those who identify as Black. Results confirmed extensive evidence demonstrating that current U.S. care delivery structures, built within a culture of white supremacy, have resulted in care that is difficult to access, does not meet the stated needs of individuals, and does not support autonomy and dignity of Black pregnant people. Recognizing the current system of care delivery as a root cause of inequities in healthcare access, experience, and outcomes, the team is utilizing the Precede-Proceed framework to develop, implement, and evaluate a novel model of care that they hypothesize will reduce barriers to care stemming from systemic and institutional racism and eliminate racist and discriminatory encounters during care access, which will improve the overall health and well-being of Black birthing individuals.

Outcomes

Accessibility of health and social services, mental wellbeing, person-centered care, and experience of racial discrimination

Methodology

The team is employing a pre-test post-test non-equivalent control group design nested within an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to answer the study questions. Two separate analyses will be conducted – one will focus on the intervention group changes between baseline and endline and across different iterative time points. The second analysis will compare differences between the intervention and control group, which will inform sample size calculations for the next phase of PV evaluation. The primary study population consists of people who are pregnant (of any gestation), are within one year of pregnancy, or are parents of young children up to five years old living in San Francisco who identify as Black or members of other racial and ethnic minority groups.


Black pregnant person sitting in a grassy area with a young Black child, both of whom have their hands on the pregnant person's abdomen
Grantee and Partner organizations

University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco Respect Initiative
Rafiki Coalition
Designing Justice +Designing Spaces

Grant status
In Progress
Principal investigators
Patience Afulani, MBChB, MPH, PhD
Malini Nijagal, MD, MPH
Start date
Award amount
$500,000
Duration
24 months

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