FIRST ensures that Lived Experience Experts guide and help implement CPCQC’s programs
About Family Integration to Restore Trust (FIRST)
CPCQC’sFIRST program (Family Integration to Restore Trust) invites people with lived experience to partner with CPCQC to improve pregnancy, postpartum, and newborn care across Colorado. As a FIRST participant, you volunteer alongside CPCQC, healthcare providers, and community partners to help design tools, guide hospitals through healthcare improvements, strengthen maternal mental health programs, and share your story to help others learn and grow.
If you are interested in sharing your story, click the button below to learn more!
Interested in joining FIRST? CPCQC works alongside participants whose pregnancy, postpartum, and/or newborn experiences connect with our program goals, learning together to improve care across Colorado.
One-Year Cohorts: Participants serve in a volunteer role for one year, with the option to renew. Typically 1-3 virtual hours / month
Training provided: Access to a MoMMAs Voices training to strengthen your advocacy skills.
Storytelling: Learn how to tell your story in a way that helps change perinatal systems and honors your experience, perspective, and boundaries
Annual Stipend: We respect your time and expertise; all participants receive a $550 annual stipend for their participation
Community: Join FIRST cohort meetings to connect with peers and share experiences.
Why
The FIRST program was created by CPCQC in 2021 to help make care more respectful, inclusive, and family-centered. FIRST believes families should be active partners in their care and have a real voice in shaping healthcare. The program supports community-led solutions to address inequities and works with providers to build strong, trusting relationships with families. By recognizing past barriers to trust and creating safe, supportive spaces, FIRST helps families and healthcare providers work together in meaningful and productive ways.
How You Can Help:
As a FIRST participant, you play a real role in making health care better for others:
• Design Tools: Help create practical resources for clinical and community partners.
• Guide Hospitals: Serve on CPCQC’sprogram steering committees to help hospitals and communities make meaningful changes.
• Expand Support: Inform how we grow mental health and behavioral health programs.
• Speak Up: Share your personal journey at events and training to educate others.
CDC’s Hear Her Campaign
The CDC’s Hear Her Campaign was launched in response to the high number of deaths in the United States each year due to pregnancy or delivery complications. This initiative spreads critical information about warning signs that could save lives and provides resources for pregnant or postpartum women, their partners, family and friends, as well as healthcare professionals who support them.
We feature these videos as powerful examples of perinatal storytelling—highlighting real experiences that build empathy, elevate lived expertise, and reinforce the importance of listening to and acting on mothers’ experiences.
Allyson’s Story
Allyson shares her experience with severe preeclampsia, an emergency C-section at 32 weeks, and the importance of speaking up when something doesn’t feel right.
Results
2025 Cohort includes 11 Participants
Launched in March 2025
All participants completed MoMMA’s Voices training
All are actively engaged in CPCQC programs or perinatal health issues, such as participating in program steering committees, sharing their lived experience at forums and attending perinatal health workshops.
At least two people with lived experience are engaged in each major CPCQC initiative
“Families are not visitors to the NICU but are essential members of the care team. The ultimate health and well-being of our most vulnerable infants is rooted in the truth that families know what is best for their babies. We have to honor and respect the central role of families in our NICU.”
-Susan Hwang, MD, PhD, MPH/MSPH; FIRST Program Provider
“My voice is desperately needed for pregnant mothers struggling with addiction. The change I create by being in the helping profession will allow me to support women in recovery and watch them grow into their true selves. Their true, healthy selves will impact their circles of family, friends, and co-workers that they surround themselves with, creating waves of impact and waves of change into the world.”
The new law allocates $1.3 million dollars to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) for use by the prevention services division to address inequities in care and disparate outcomes among birthing people and their infants.
In 2024, the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC) innovatively revamped its SOAR Primary Cesarean Reduction program into a one-year, intensive learning collaborative.
