MLPB in a Special Initiative
About Our Partner
Upstreaming Housing for Health: Interdisciplinary Support for Pregnant Women and Newborns was a community-based collaboration between Community Care Cooperative (C3), a MassHealth Accountable Care Organization), the Boston Public Health Commission, the Boston Housing Authority, and MLPB. Upstreaming was funded on a pilot basis by the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General through its Social Determinants Partnership program.
The pilot was designed to strengthen supports for at-risk pregnant women and their newborns in order to improve housing stability and health outcomes, reduce health disparities, and decrease unnecessary utilization of high-cost services.
Upstreaming Housing for Health ran from January 2019 and December 2020. You can access the article Beyond Housing for Health: Using Flexible Funds to Improve Maternal and Child Health in the Journal of Urban Health.
What We Do
MLPB joined a “cross-cross-cross-sector” team that included ambassadors from an accountable care organization, public health commission, and housing authority. These stakeholders share a common vision of collectively providing more strategic support to pregnant and parenting women confronting housing instability in the City of Boston. They also share an understanding that housing instability doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and that families’ legal rights, risks, and remedies are a key ingredient in successful housing-related problem-solving.
Building on an innovative partnership between BPHC and BHA (known as Healthy Start in Housing), Upstreaming integrated MLPB to provide this community of practice. MLPB provided continuous education and coaching that bolstered housing problem-solving partnerships with families. Throughout this project, MLPB highlighted unique legal protections for pregnant women and families. This continuous learning took place through Unlocking Access trainings, embedding within Upstreaming team meetings, and rapid-response consultations.
Unlock Access for Your Team
MLPB is honored and energized to partner with communities of care who understand that human-centered care planning and high-quality delivery of social care must systematically account for people’s legal rights, risks, and remedies.
