Group Care Global, Philadelphia, PA (2026)

09/17/2026

Happening tomorrow! 🌍

Group Care Global is excited to be part of ICGMV’s 2026 Conference: The Power of Groups, exploring what makes Group Medical Visits effective.

During Session 2: Implementation Track, Deborah Billings, PhD, and Astrid Van Damme, CNM, PhD, will present:

“Centering-Based Group Prenatal Care Across Cultural Settings: Modification Processes for Successful Implementation.”

📅 September 18, 2026
🕚 11:55 AM EST

We look forward to sharing insights and experiences on adapting and implementing group prenatal care across diverse cultural settings.

09/15/2026

Building skills. Strengthening systems. Growing local leadership.

Group care changes more than where care happens. It changes how healthcare providers and participants learn, communicate, and make decisions together.

That is why facilitator training was a central part of GC_1000.

Facilitators learn how to:

• Create a welcoming and respectful group environment
• Guide interactive discussion instead of relying on lectures
• Encourage participants to ask questions and share experiences
• Support self-care activities and individual clinical assessments within the group space
• Build trust, connection, and peer support
• Respond thoughtfully to different cultures, languages, and participant needs

Training is designed to be experiential. Providers practice the skills they will use in real sessions, reflect on their facilitation, and learn from one another.

But preparing individual facilitators is only the beginning.

To build lasting local capacity, GC_1000 also prepared in-country trainers who could train and support additional facilitators within their own health systems. By the end of the project:

🎓 219 healthcare workers had been trained
🌍 46 in-country trainers had been prepared across seven countries

This approach helps knowledge remain within local organizations and communities. It creates a foundation for continued coaching, stronger facilitator networks, and the sustainable expansion of group care.

The lesson is clear: scale does not come from training people once. It grows through ongoing practice, reflection, mentorship, and local leadership.

When facilitators are supported to become confident group leaders and local trainers are equipped to guide others group care becomes more than a project. It becomes a capacity that health systems can continue to strengthen.

Explore the training and implementation resources:
https://groupcare.global/group-care-implementation-modules/en/

09/10/2026

We’re excited to be part of ICGMV’s Sixth Annual Conference: The Power of Groups!

On September 18, 2026, Group Care Global’s Deborah Billings, PhD, and Astrid Van Damme, CNM, PhD, will lead a main session exploring Centering-based group prenatal care across cultural settings and the modification processes that support successful implementation.

Their session will share insights into how group care can be thoughtfully adapted across different contexts while maintaining the essential elements that make the model effective.

The virtual conference brings together professionals and leaders in group medical visits and shared medical appointments to exchange knowledge, experiences, and approaches to strengthening group-based care.

✨ The conference has also been approved for 7 CME credits.

📅 September 18, 2026
💻 Virtual Conference
🔗 Register and explore the full conference schedule: ICGMV 2026 Conference

We look forward to being part of the conversation and sharing what we’ve learned through Group Care Global’s work around the world.

09/04/2026

Group Care is more than a healthcare visit it’s a space for care, learning, and connection. 💛

The model brings together three essential components:

🩺 Health Assessment
Participants receive individual clinical assessment within the group setting.

💬 Interactive Learning
Facilitated discussions create opportunities to ask questions, share experiences, and learn together.

🤝 Community Building
Participants connect with others going through similar experiences, building relationships and a valuable sense of support.

By bringing these elements together, Group Care transforms a traditional appointment into a shared experience where people can receive care, gain knowledge, and build community.

More than a visit. A community of care.

09/01/2026

What does it take to make group care work?

Across seven countries, GC_1000 explored what helps group care take root in real healthcare settings and what can stand in the way.

The project revealed several important lessons:

🔎 Understand the context first

Before implementation begins, teams need to understand the needs of families, providers, facilities, and the wider health system. Cultural expectations, language, staffing, funding, available space, and existing policies can all influence success.

🤝 Build support at every level

Committed facilitators are essential, but they cannot sustain group care alone. Successful implementation also requires supportive leadership, engaged facility staff, community involvement, and, where possible, backing from policymakers.

🎓 Invest in people, not only materials

Facilitators need practical, interactive training to transition from delivering information to guiding discussion and shared learning. Continued coaching, reflection, and peer support help teams strengthen their skills over time.

🗓️ Prepare the practical systems

Group care depends on reliable enrollment and scheduling, appropriate space, necessary equipment and materials, clear staff responsibilities, referral pathways, and systems for monitoring progress.

🌍 Adapt thoughtfully

Group care must respond to local realities while protecting its three essential components: clinical assessment, interactive learning, and community building.

🔄 Keep learning

Implementation is not a one-time event. Teams need to listen, review what is working, address challenges, and adjust as conditions change.

Perhaps the strongest lesson from GC_1000 is this: group care succeeds through collaboration.

Training can begin the process, but long-term sustainability depends on people, relationships, organizational commitment, resources, and health systems working together.

Explore the lessons and implementation resources:
https://groupcare.global/resources/group-care-toolkit/

08/31/2026

Better care happens when people feel informed, connected, and supported. 💙

Research on Group Care has shown positive outcomes across the care experience, including greater satisfaction with care, stronger social support, and increased engagement among participants.

By bringing people together for individual health assessment, interactive learning, and community building, Group Care creates space for participants to learn not only from their healthcare providers, but also from one another.

Because sometimes, one of the most powerful parts of care is knowing you’re not going through it alone.

08/24/2026

Across seven countries and diverse healthcare settings, GC_1000 turned a shared vision for group care into practical action.

By the end of the project:

🌍 7 countries participated
📍 32 healthcare sites implemented group care
👥 219 healthcare workers were trained
🎓 46 in-country trainers were prepared to strengthen local capacity
🤰 210 antenatal groups were conducted
👶 19 postnatal groups were conducted
🤱 12 groups continued from pregnancy into the postnatal period
🗺️ 7 country-specific blueprints were developed

The project also produced a global implementation toolkit, a manual for assessing local context, training resources, and a growing body of research to support the adaptation, implementation, sustainability, and scale-up of group care.

But these figures represent more than project milestones.

They represent healthcare professionals building new skills, organizations transforming how care is delivered, and pregnant and parenting people experiencing care through participation, shared learning, and supportive relationships.

Together, the seven GC_1000 country journeys created practical knowledge that can help other health systems introduce group care in ways that are locally relevant and grounded in its essential principles.

Explore the project results:
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/848147/results

08/20/2026

Seven countries. Seven contexts. One shared vision.

Through GC_1000, group care was implemented across Belgium, Ghana, Kosovo, the Netherlands, South Africa, Suriname, and the United Kingdom.

These countries represented different cultures, communities, resources, and healthcare systems. They also began from different starting points: Belgium, Suriname, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom had previous experience with group care, while the model was new in Ghana, Kosovo, and South Africa.

That diversity was central to the project.

GC_1000 was not designed to introduce one rigid program in seven locations. Instead, country teams worked with healthcare providers, stakeholders, and communities to understand what could support or hinder group care in each setting.

Teams considered questions such as:
• How is antenatal and postnatal care currently organized?
• What do women and families need from their care?
• What cultural and social factors shape participation?• What resources, spaces, staffing, and referral systems are available?
• What changes would help providers deliver group care successfully?

Those findings informed local implementation strategies, training, materials, and site-level plans.

Adaptation did not mean losing the model’s foundation. Across settings, group care continued to bring together its three essential components: clinical assessment, interactive learning, and community building.

What changed was how those components were delivered in ways that made sense locally.

The seven-country experience reinforced an essential lesson: meaningful healthcare transformation is not achieved by copying and pasting a model. It requires listening, collaboration, local knowledge, and the flexibility to respond to each community and health system.

The result was not one universal pathway, but seven country-specific journeys and a stronger foundation for implementing group care in other settings around the world.

Discover the GC_1000 country stories and resources:https://www.groupcare1000.com/

08/18/2026

What did Group Care Global contribute to GC_1000?

As a partner in the international GC_1000 consortium, Group Care Global brought extensive experience in the principles, facilitation, training, and implementation of group care.

A central part of GCG’s contribution was helping healthcare teams understand not only what group care is, but how to put it into practice while preserving its essential components:

• Individual clinical assessment within the group setting
• Interactive, facilitated learning
• Community building and peer support

GCG designed an interactive facilitator-training curriculum that uses a learning-by-doing approach. Rather than relying on lectures alone, the training gives healthcare providers and co-facilitators opportunities to practice the skills needed to guide meaningful, participatory group sessions.

GCG also worked with CAI to develop a comprehensive series of implementation modules for GC_1000. Available in multiple languages, these resources help organizations explore, plan, introduce, and strengthen group care within their own health systems and communities.

Throughout the project, GCG contributed its experience to the consortium’s shared learning—supporting the development of resources that can help teams move from initial planning to implementation, sustainability, and scale-up.

This contribution reflects a core belief behind GCG’s work: successful group care cannot simply be copied from one setting to another. It must be implemented collaboratively, adapted thoughtfully, and supported by people with the skills to create respectful and empowering care experiences.

The resources created through GC_1000 continue to support healthcare providers and organizations around the world.

Explore the implementation modules:https://groupcare.global/group-care-implementation-modules/en/

Explore the Group Care Toolkit:https://groupcare.global/resources/group-care-toolkit/

08/10/2026

When people come together in a Group Care session, learning becomes a shared experience.

While facilitators guide the conversation, participants bring something equally valuable: their own experiences, questions, insights, and encouragement. Hearing how others have navigated similar challenges can offer practical ideas, reassurance, and a sense of connection that no textbook can provide.

Peer learning creates an environment where everyone contributes, everyone listens, and everyone grows together. It transforms care from a one-way conversation into a supportive community where knowledge is shared, confidence is built, and lasting relationships are formed.

At Group Care Global, we believe that some of the most meaningful learning happens not just from experts but from each other.

💬 What's something you've learned from someone else's experience?

Group Care Global

09/17/2026

09/15/2026

09/10/2026

09/04/2026

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

08/24/2026

08/20/2026

08/18/2026

08/10/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Organization

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Listing takedown request