If you care about the health and wellbeing of mothers and babies, then this petition is for you to sign. I started a nonprofit to save Black mothers and babies, and it was practically stolen from me.

This petition serves to highlight three issues:

1. Mothers and babies deserve better care. They are at risk under the current leadership because they aren't interested in serving others. They're interested in serving themselves.
2. Nonprofit founders are not protected under law, although the use of the organization name and program models are their intellectual property.
3. Donors are being taken advantage of and are blindsided because they don't know the difference between organizations doing the real work and those organizations purporting to. BBC was one of the organizations doing the real work from the heart. That is no longer the case.

 

My name is Christin Farmer, and I am the Founder of Birthing Beautiful Communities. The organization was created to provide mothers with emotional support during the pregnancy, the labor and delivery, and the postpartum period. Mothers are assigned a doula who is there to guide them through their birth journey by developing a birth and postpartum plan, signing them up for in person classes, and preparing them for their baby. 

When these services are rendered with intention, quality, compassion and care, they can help the mother increase her body confidence, her birthing confidence, her breastfeeding confidence and her overall mothering confidence. When a mother feels confident, her autonomy increases. This means she is able, capable and willing to make informed decisions about her body, her birth and her baby. A mother’s confidence is the antidote to infant and maternal mortality.

In 2021, I was forced to resign when I asked the board for a year sabbatical, and they decided to give me only two months. I wanted the sabbatical because I found myself in an abusive marriage and needed time to figure out my exit plan. I took the two months but when I returned I still was not ready, so I made the very difficult decision to resign. The board in turn offered me just $7,500 in severance pay and declined to keep me on as an advisor. I refused the payout because I raised over $5 million for that organization, and found the offer to be disrespectful.

In my place, I appointed Jazmin Long, who served as the Director of Fund Development, to President and CEO to hold the position for no more than two years. I believed with her continuing to raise money, and with my staff who had been with me from the beginning, the organization would continue to thrive. 

I was wrong. 

After I left, Jazmin immediately began a smear campaign against me, demanded that the staff not contact me and forced some of my original staff out of the organization.

The organization was being managed by my most trusted staff members who have been birthworkers for years, such as India Robertson and Myranda Majid who understood the mission and vision to its core. They had a genuine and meaningful connection to the community and the mothers we served. With them being forced out, the organization has lost its integrity and its purpose. It has now become a typical nonprofit organization more interested in the funds, optics, and notoriety than the actual work. 

Our mothers and babies cannot afford to have people who care more about notoriety and do not have their best interests at heart in leadership or on the board.

This is a fight for our babies.

This is a fight for our mothers. 

I am calling for the resignation of Jazmin Long and her board, all not in alignment with what the organization was created to do.

Keep reading if you want more background to this story…

I wrote Jazmin an email in November 2023 outlining the complaints and issues. She did not respond. Instead, in retaliation, she fired Marlene Morris, BBC’s longest standing doula. I forwarded the email to a board member, Monique Williams, who forwarded the email to Michael Bowen, the Board President. I wrote to him myself and asked for a meeting. He never responded and after three business days, I posted the email to Facebook and Instagram, along with the countless stories of mothers not receiving services and callbacks. Former doulas and midwives posted to their accounts and mines how they have had adverse experiences with Jazmin and the organization. 

The only communication I received from the organization was a cease and desist letter. 

They were more concerned about their image than the complaints of poor service. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mackenzie Scott donated $2 million to this organization without knowing that they are NOT for the people. They are for themselves.

 

Jazmin has been at the center of a smear campaign against me - the person who gave her a life changing opportunity, and my former staff. She weaponized my mental health by telling people I was crazy, and trying to sabotage my name, told my staff not to contact me and fired my longest standing doula, retaliating because of the email I sent. She still owes money to India Robertson. She reversed her paycheck twice after she left, and used India's breast cancer diagnosis as a reason to why she left.

She's lying to everyone around her, and the people who are backing her are just as guilty for putting the lives of mothers and babies at risk with her poor leadership.

I care about the well being of the mothers and babies. This was never about ego for me. It's about the work. 

The organization is still using my intellectual property but is not upholding the mission and vision of sisterhood and service. The name and program models all belong to me. These assets were created and in use before we became a 501c3 or before I ever received a cent from the organization.

It's time to act now because thousands, if not millions of organizations get away with murder - they get a lot of money but they are not servicing the community properly. It's time to protect founders, protect donors and to keep grassroots organizations, grassroots.

Immediate action is needed to save the lives of babies and mothers in Cleveland and other parts of the United States. The change starts here.