The weeks before a baby arrives can be filled with one long checklist of questions for mothers and caregivers.
What doctors do I need to meet with?
When do those appointments need to be scheduled?
How do I find child care once the baby arrives? And how will I afford it?
What will I do if my housing becomes an issue? Or if my baby gets sick?
In East Oakland, a new partnership between Roots Community Health and BANANAS is designed to help expectant parents get ready to welcome their babies. These two local organizations are combining health care and child care services into a single, coordinated home-visiting program for families. During pregnancy and the early postpartum period, families will have access to services from both organizations that best fit their needs, coordinated through one intake process.
Roots, founded in 2008 as a two-person volunteer effort in East Oakland, has grown into a trusted community health provider assisting patients with medical and behavioral health care. Dr. Noha Aboelata, Roots’ CEO and Co-founder, sought to improve the health of her patients beyond clinical care.
“When we started delivering care, I wanted to know what it is that’s keeping folks from really being healthy?” said Noha Aboelata, CEO and Co-founder of Roots. “And so much of it went back to poverty itself. We realized that we could put as many doctors as we wanted in East Oakland, and it wasn’t going to solve all of that.”
Roots built its model by meeting people beyond their clinic walls to build trust in their medical expertise and by working on the other issues that affect people’s health like access to healthy food, housing, disability management, and employment.
BANANAS, now more than 50 years old, began as a playgroup started by moms navigating work and caregiving. Today, they offer child care referrals and resources to families with young children in Northern Alameda County, which contains the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Alameda, and Albany
BANANAS has been a cornerstone for child care referrals, voucher navigation, and parent education, while also expanding support for families facing housing instability and emergency financial needs.
Both Roots and BANANAS have long served Oakland families—often the same families—in different ways. The partnership grew from years of “being at tables together,” and became formalized in a pilot model for home visits for expecting families, supported by a grant from the Packard Foundation.
In Oakland, many new mothers face higher rates of preterm birth, gaps in consistent care, and inequities in healthcare quality and access. In Alameda County, Black infants have a 3.4 times higher mortality rate than white infants in their first year, a stark indicator of the stakes for families in the months after birth. And barriers to reliable postpartum care make it difficult for some families to meet their needs during an already stressful time.
The home-visiting program led by Roots and BANANAS is designed around those needs and intended to help prevent gaps in care with support that is consistent and well-rounded.
“The goal is a streamlined, transparent approach so families aren’t over‑asked or handed off without clarity. From the start, they know they’re engaging with both organizations as a single, coordinated service.”
Each family is paired with a Trained Family Navigator who will provide individualized support and education, while also linking them to community resources. They coordinate how the family will work with BANANAS for child care support and Roots for health care. Each component of the program is catered to the individual family, so they are getting what they need.
The model is intentionally flexible so that whichever organization a family already trusts may lead first, with shared planning to avoid duplicated intakes and repeated storytelling.
For example, Roots may take the lead to ensure clinical follow‑up, and for typical pregnancies, BANANAS will focus on non‑clinical supports like breastfeeding, safe sleep, and postpartum check‑ins.
The program is designed to complement medical care, not replace it.
“The point is thoughtful screening and warm, facilitated handoffs so families feel supported, not inundated."
The Packard Foundation supported the proposal from Roots and BANANAS as a pilot in East Oakland. This project will provide an opportunity to learn about the potential for comprehensive home visiting support to promote health and well-being for families with young children. The results could help inform other communities interested in adopting a similar approach. The Packard Foundation invests in partnerships like this that strengthen the health care, child care, and financial supports systems so they’re better connected and easier to access.
“This is such a special partnership that combines the best of these two extraordinary organizations,” said Katie Harkin, Program Officer for the Packard Foundation. “Roots and BANANAS are bringing together their respective strengths to help families navigate exactly what they need to set up their new baby to thrive. It’s the kind of collaboration that reimagines what care for families looks like.”
The first cohort of expecting mothers launched in November 2025 and will follow them through their post-partum months. These mothers will provide feedback to shape the program for future families. They have helped put together supply kits for their cohort which future families will receive as part of the program.
“Welcoming a new baby to the house should be such a joyful time, and whatever we can do to ensure that happens, let’s do that,” said Johnson.
