Open Arms Perinatal Services
HOW WE CAME TO BE:
Almost seven years ago, PALS applied for its 501cs status. To the
surprise of everyone, the IRS determined that PALS was not a charitable
organization, but was, in fact, a business league. This led to nearly
two years of strategic planning in which the Board tried to determine what
should be PALS next steps (documentation of this process is available in the
PALS archive notebooks from 1995-1996). There were two results of this
process. First, the PALS Board realized that its "client" is the doula not the laboring woman. This led to a process of changing
the mission statement to more accurately reflect this, and to the process of
evaluation and improving PALS' services to doulas which continues today.
The second result of this strategic planning process was that PALS decided to create a sister organization that would more directly serve childbearing women, and could qualify for 501c3 status. Open Arms Perinatal Services was born. The new Open Arms Board applied for and received an "advanced ruling" on 501c3 status five years ago, and just this year, this status was confirmed by the IRS.
WHERE WE ARE TODAY: The mission of Open Arms is to develop programs and provide services that met the physical, psychological, social and cultural needs of childbearing women and their families. We currently run the following program:
The Penny Simkin Scholarship Fund was established in 1999 to celebrate PALS tenth birthday and to honor founder Penny Simkin. Shortly after its establishment, the Scholarship Fund was turned over to Open Arms since Open Arms' 501c3 status made it the more appropriate administrator. The Scholarship Fund has provided financial assistance for training, and membership, apprenticeship, and certification fees to over 20 low income women interested in becoming certified practicing doulas.
In the past, Open Arms ran the following program:
The Incarcerated Women's Project (IWP) was started in 1998 after Open Arms applied for and received a grant from the March of Dimes. In collaboration with King County Jail, Public Health Seattle and King County, and the University of Washington, the IWP provided doulas for pregnant women who were incarcerated at the time that they went into labor. Without doula care, these women labored and birthed with only medical staff and a jail guard in attendance.
WHERE WE WANT TO BE TOMORROW: Our goals for the next couple of years are:
- To expand the Penny Simkin Scholarship Fund so that more low income women can pursue becoming a doula.
- To develop a new community Doula Program which will train women from diverse ethnic or underserved communities to provide birth and postpartum doula services to women and their families within their own community.
- To work with PALS to define the relationship between the two organizations.
- To maintain financial viability through fundraisers and grant writing.
- To expand the Board of Directors.
For more
information please call 206-723-6868 or e-mail scapestany@comcast.net
Board of Directors | Vision & Mission Statement
