A nonprofit agency wants to expand its outreach to Bloomington-Normal's Latinx population, specifically expecting mothers.
Brightpoint has dozens of programs to serve McLean County families at every stage of family development. The agency is working to broaden the population it serves by providing tools to make its services more accessible to non-English speaking families.
The doula program is raising money for educational materials in Spanish to bridge the gap between doula and mother caused by language barriers.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any bilingual doulas, which is why the bilingual educational materials are so important so that we can serve the Latinx community so that they feel included, and they know that at Brightpoint, they’re welcome,” said doula program supervisor Jasmine Martin.
Martin said those materials are expensive. For example, DVDs about labor and delivery can run several hundred dollars. Sometimes the doula needs a language interpreter.
A pickleball event to help raise money for the doula program is set for 5 p.m. Friday at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington. Cost of entry is $30.
As a cog in the machine built to strengthen families, Martin described how the doula program works to accomplish this.
“Our mission, I would say, is to serve,” Martin said, “...the meaning of doula is servant, and we provide home visiting services to our families prenatally on a weekly basis. We really do our best to tailor services to the needs of different families; we know every family is not one-size-fits-all.”
Morgan Lashley of Bloomington is a mother currently enrolled in the Brightpoint doula program. She said her needs were less centered around her pregnancy, and more on handling everyday living issues, while pregnant.
“They’ve given me a lot of housing resource information,” Lashley said. “They’ve given me lists to different organizations around town that could help me find different housing around the area. They’ve given me information [for] help with food and stuff like that... and I think that’s really important.”
The program is open to any family who wants a doula, but Brightpoint is working to make sure underrepresented groups have equal access to the service.
“We definitely try to target our first-time moms, and even our moms that might have a lower socio-economic status,” Martin said. “We really try our best to provide our services to any pregnant woman who wants a doula.”
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is not exclusive to just the doula program; it is a staple across Brightpoint's programs, enforced through administrative efforts, said senior development specialist Laura Cordero.
“We have an entire department devoted to diversity and inclusion, belonging, understanding all those things, so we’re serving all of our families the same way across the state, regardless of background,” she said.
