This project, Jardín de Espacios (Garden of Spaces): Designing Well-Being During the Perinatal Journey, was led by Public Health Madison and Dane County in partnership with Roots4Change Cooperative to improve community health by addressing the maternal and child of Latino and Indigenous families in Dane County. Through a community-driven process centered on cooperative inquiry, storytelling and PhotoVoice, the project brought together immigrant birthing families, doulas, health care providers and health administrators to explore the realities of navigating maternal and child health systems. The project generated community-led knowledge, strengthened partnerships across sectors and created a foundation for future advocacy, healing-centered programming and systems change efforts that center the voices, experiences and leadership of Latino and Indigenous families.
The Challenge
The state of maternal and infant well-being is a key indicator of how communities support and protect one of their most vulnerable populations. In Wisconsin, Latino and Indigenous mothers and infants continue to experience significant gaps in maternal and infant health outcomes driven by social, economic and structural factors that impede health, resulting in worsening maternal and child health outcomes in Dane County, where infant mortality among Latino and Indigenous infants has increased over the past decade.
Many Latino families also face financial stress and challenges navigating systems that were not designed to meet the needs of immigrant communities. Improving these outcomes requires recognizing maternal and child health as a complex system shaped by policy, cultural norms, service availability, and community advocacy, and addressing these disparities requires elevating community voices, strengthening partnerships and creating culturally responsive approaches that empower Latino and Indigenous families and improve outcomes for mothers and children.
Project Goals
To address the challenge, this project sought to create a community-centered approach to maternal and child health for Latino and Indigenous families in Dane County. Through a collaborative partnership between Roots4Change Cooperative and Public Health Madison and Dane County, the project aimed to:
Ensure community ownership in the design and expansion of culturally rooted maternal and child health programs, including learning opportunities for birthing parents and children and healing spaces that support emotional, mental and physical well-being.
Strengthen collaboration between public health systems and Latino and Indigenous families by identifying and challenging policies, practices and assumptions that perpetuate inequities and by developing community-driven solutions and accountability measures.
Build the foundation for sustainable programs and services that reflect the cultural diversity, strengths and needs of Latino and Indigenous families while improving maternal and child health outcomes in the community.
Results
Jardín de Espacios created a community participatory research process that brought together immigrant birthing families, doulas, health care providers and health administrators to explore maternal and child health experiences through cooperative inquiry, storytelling and PhotoVoice. The project successfully completed its research activities, including the development of survey and interview tools, data collection and community engagement processes. Through this work, community members became active participants in generating knowledge rather than subjects of research, creating a process rooted in healing, reflection and shared learning.
The project exceeded its targets related to doula development, with doulas supporting both programmatic and research-driven activities and completing nearly all requirements for certification. New partnerships were established with community members participating in the research process as well as faculty from UW-Madison’s School of Social Work and School of Human Ecology. These collaborations expanded Roots4Change Cooperative’s research capacity and created new opportunities for grant proposals, educational initiatives and community resource development. Existing partnerships with health care, public health and community organizations remained actively engaged throughout the project, supporting discussion sessions, data collection and collective learning.
The project also strengthened participants’ understanding of maternal and child health through the exploration of themes that emerged from the PhotoVoice process. Preliminary findings highlighted the importance of gender, empowerment and voice; support, connection and belonging; personal growth and transformation; awareness and education; and emotional and spiritual well-being. Participants described how storytelling created opportunities to heal from personal experiences, strengthen solidarity among women, build confidence in their own power and connect individual experiences to broader community issues. Findings also demonstrated the importance of culturally and linguistically responsive spaces, peer support, community accountability, and intergenerational connections in fostering maternal well-being and community resilience.
Beyond the research findings, the project created opportunities for participants and team members to engage in difficult conversations about power, privilege, cultural differences and equity. Team members learned to navigate institutional research processes while challenging barriers that often limit authentic community-based participatory research. Participants reported that the opportunity to share stories, photographs and lived experiences helped transform isolation into connection and survival into collective action. The project generated knowledge that will inform future advocacy efforts, including community and virtual PhotoVoice exhibits, educational materials and community-driven strategies to improve maternal and child health systems for Latino and Indigenous families.
Lasting Impact
Jardín de Espacios demonstrated what is possible when those closest to the issues lead the process of generating knowledge and creating solutions. The relationships, trust and collective learning developed through this work will continue beyond the grant period through public exhibits, advocacy efforts, educational opportunities and future community-led research. The project created a pathway for transforming personal stories into collective knowledge and collective knowledge into action, while strengthening the ability of community members, organizations and systems partners to work together toward maternal and child health justice for Latino and Indigenous families.
