The non-profit Roberta's House was chosen to provide in-home counseling to mothers who have lost babies under a new city program to start this fall.
The non-profit Family League of Baltimore, in conjunction with the city's health department, put out a request for proposals last month looking for someone to run the program and announced last week they had awarded it to Roberta's House.
Roberta's House was chosen because of its extensive work in the past providing grief services to women, survivors of homicide victims, children and many others. The non-profit was started by one of the children of the owners of The March Funeral Home business, who saw there were not enough services for the families who grieved after the death of loved ones.
An estimated 30 women are expected to be served under the new program, started because officials saw that many mothers were suffering alone at home.
Only a handful of such programs exist across the country, and according to the Family League, Baltimore's would be the only one to use as counselors mothers who have grieved the loss of a child, rather than nurses and social workers. A previous home visitation program that relied on professional counselors wasn't widely used.