AGENDA
SUMMIT DAY 1
Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
8:00 - 8:50 a.m.
Registration and Breakfast
Musical Performance and Welcoming: Bomba de Aquí
8:50 - 9:00 a.m.
Ancestral Honoring: Libations
A guided ancestral honoring ritual offering libations in recognition of the guidance, leadership, and lasting presence of ancestors in our lives.
9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
Opening Keynote
Rhapsodies of Radical Imagination
This keynote explores the ways that music helps us to access the radical imagination, using our creativity to envision and then work towards a world that embraces liberatory possibilities, and values people and the planet in sustainable and healthy ways.
10:15 - 10:30 a.m.
Break & Transition
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block A
Education
The Blueprint to Building Resilient Leadership In Youth
Community Food Systems
Building Regional Food Systems for people by people
Birth Justice
Birthwork as Revolutionary Practice
Relational Health
Disrupting the Default: Reimagining Systems Through Lived Experience
Adriana Raines and Shaquera Robinson
11:30 - 11:40 a.m.
Break & Transition
11:40 - 12:40 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block B
Birth Justice
People Powered: Portals of radical possibilities in the policy landscape and beyond
Community-led strategies and innovations transforming the birth justice movement and collective power nationwide through collaborative policy design, mapping and networks.
Research Workshop
Reimagining Evaluation: From Harm to Healing through Data Care and Equity Tools
Birth Justice
Building Advocacy Power to Invest in our Communities
Practical tools to navigate the Massachusetts legislative process, engage policymakers, and build collective advocacy power to advance birth justice.
Signature Keynote
Holding Extraordinary Hope Inside Ordinary Interactions
What the most ordinary human connections can teach us about the trust, hope, and relational practices that build our communities.
12:40 - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Poster Session A
Ritual Is A Liberatory Practice: Centering the Mother, Reclaiming the Family, and Designing Together
Budgeting Basics - The Mindset of Saving
Greaux on the Geaux: Growing Food, Dignity, and Access One Tote at a Time
Learning from Terreiros
Janet Arelis Quezada
The Basics Boston: Building Community from Birth, Partnering with Families
What's Love Got to Do With It: Environmental Exposures and Children’s Health: Dual Foundations for Prevention and Care
Healing the Womb, Healing the Future
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block C
Community Leadership
Strategic Planning in Times of Uncertainty
Community Food Systems
Medicine is in the Land: Honoring the Plants that Feed and Heal
Birth Justice
Sustaining Birth Justice: Funding Research, Resources and Roadways to Inclusive Perinatal Liberation
Relational Health
Noticing and Appreciating The Power of Simple Interactions
With a simple tool, we can look and discover both universal and distinct relational practices across our communities.
2:30 - 2:40 p.m.
Break & Transition
2:40 - 3:40 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block D
Education
Building Resilience in Family Childcare Settings
Lightning Talks - Session A
Collective Pathways: Reclaiming Fatherhood, Strengthening Birthwork, Transforming Care
Early Development Resource Hot Spots: How Metro-Boston neighborhoods are balancing ECE equity through non-traditional programming
Fathers on the Move: Reclaiming Fatherhood and Rebuilding Systems for Beloved Community
Supporting the MA birth workforce: Reflections on implementation of the Birthworker Equity in Education Collaborative
Kate Mitchell Balla and Claire Gonzalez
No Stones Thrown: Reclaiming Power Through Lived Experience and Reflective Healing
Birth Justice
Midwifery And The Black Birthing Family
Relational Health
Healing and Connection in Early Childhood: Group Care and Lullaby Making
Michelle Gallas and Tiffany Ortiz
3:40 - 4:00 p.m.
Break & Transition
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Closing Signature Plenary
Moderated Conversation: What It Takes to Heal
Signature Conversation with Prentis Hemphill
Poetry Offering
Signature Opening Poem offered by Sunni Patterson
SUMMIT DAY 2
Friday, October 24, 2025 | 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
8:00 - 8:55 a.m.
Registration and Breakfast
9:00 - 10:15 a.m.
Opening Keynote Plenary
Social Justice as Sacred: Decolonizing our Movements through Spirit, Care and Connection
Keynote Speakers: Wakumi Douglas and Kristen Wyman
This interactive keynote plenary will explore tools for healing, resistance, and reimagining systems of care in the work of abolition.
10:15 - 10:30 a.m.
Break & Transition
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block E
Education: Data Storytelling
Reading to, With and By Children: Trauma Responsive Approaches
Community Food Systems
Facilitator Wellness
Birth Justice
Family Policing and Reproductive Justice
Relational Health
Beyond Borders: Pioneering Group Care Models for Mothers, Children and Families Worldwide
11:30 - 11:40 a.m.
Break & Transition
11:40 - 12:40 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block F
Signature Keynote
Liberatory Funding for Beloved Community
Community Food Systems
Grounded and Growing: Equitable Pathways in Food Sovereignty
Birth Justice
We Are the Data: Amplifying and Supporting Solutions for Community Healing and Resilience
Relational Health
Co-Designing Relational Systems of Care: Advancing Care Delivery Models for Families Impacted by Substance Use
12:40 - 1:30 p.m.
Lunch
1:30 - 2:00 p.m.
Poster Session B
Designing and preparing for a community engaged research project that addresses maternal health disparities in the Gulf South
More Than a Bill: The Economic and Emotional Toll on Single Mothers of Color in a System of Financial Disparity
Curtis Chambers, Larry Lisenby, and Priscilla Rodriquez
Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) and Food Access to Marginalized Communities; Surveys, Incentives, and Community Engagement
I AM: The impact of solution based services and the importance of developing a positive mindset to achieve long lasting change.
Amelia Woodley
Beyond the Delivery Room: Addressing Social Determinants of Health Through Community-Based Doula Care
Kanwal Haq
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Concurrent Sessions: Block G
Lightning Talks - Session B
Radial Reimagining: Reclaiming Power, Peace, and Possibility
Birth as portal of Liberation: Reweaving the Village through Collective Maternal & Familial Restoration
CONNECT: Co-Creating a Relational Measure of Trust, Respect, and Dignity in Pediatric Care
Recycled Expressions: Creative awareness of Transit and Climate Justice
Beyond the Safety Net: Navigating the Benefits Cliff through Clarity, Community, and Advocacy
Education
Care and Immigration: What Advocates Need to Know about Centering and Supporting Immigrant Children, Families, and Early Educators
Birth Justice
Affirming Joy and Thriving: Community-Led Organizations and a theory of Change for Black Birth Equity
Eurnestine Brown, Jillian Brashear, Tammie Jones, Victoria Williams, Kaitleen Noah, Bryttani Debro, and Kendria Barnes
Relational Health
The Power of Support Groups: A Model for Community Strength and Healing
Liz Friedman and Erica Napolitan
2:30 - 2:35 p.m.
Break & Transition
2:35 - 3:30 p.m.
Closing Keynote Plenary
Closing Keynote: Sankofa Ethos for Resistance and Regeneration of Beloved Community
Using the Sankofa principle framework of past, present and future, we will illuminate six pathways that help us cultivate beloved communities and navigate our journey to build a sustainable future.
Poetry Offering
Signature Closing Poem offered by Sunni Patterson
Summit Closing