Expecting Relief

Vanessa Bracetty’s experience growing up in poverty, raised by a single mother, and frequent interactions with public assistance made one issue startlingly clear: mothers and infants did not have adequate access to daily essentials like food, diapers, and menstrual products.

“Lived experience birthed what Expecting Relief is… I live in the community I serve,” shared Bracetty. At the age of 25, she began the paperwork to establish Expecting Relief as a nonprofit and in 2014, gained exempt status to further her mission of helping “all people…live in dignity.” For Bracetty, its work is also built around addressing the racial disparities and injustices plaguing Black and Brown families in Brooklyn.

“It’s a three-pronged approach,” Bracetty explained. Expecting Relief focuses on distribution, education, and advocacy to provide equitable access to essentials for community members, especially mothers and infants.

Distribution encompasses most of Expecting Relief’s daily operations. Diapers, doula care, menstrual products, and food are among the various free essentials they provide. “We’re filling in the gaps,” Bracetty said. Over the past two years, they have provided 830,000 diapers for 16,600 infants, 48 workshops for 1,400 attendees, and free doula services for 100 expecting mothers.

But beyond free essentials and invaluable financial relief for families, Expecting Relief is adamant about making mothers more confident about the birthing and child-raising process. “We don’t just want you to come [to us] because you’re gonna get these things. We want to really educate.” Transitioning from hosting baby showers, Expecting Relief now offers workshops which teach expecting mothers essential first-aid skills, mental healthcare strategies, and the services they’re entitled to under the law.

As if directly meeting maternal and infant health needs wasn’t enough, Expecting Relief is also making inroads in D.C. and Albany by addressing the root causes of the issues they confront. “We speak with legislators so that way they can know what we do and how it’s important that they fit us into their budgets with funding.”

With Brooklyn Org’s support, Bracetty hopes Expecting Relief can continue to build and expand capacity. One pressing need is moving into a warehouse space, which would provide a stable and consistent distribution hub for the diapers and menstrual products they provide, increasing their ability to give away more products to more mothers. Bracetty also hopes to transition part-time employees into full-time positions. “It just helps us logistically with the whole operation.”

On a larger scale, Expecting Relief has dreams of creating their own diaper brand to address accessibility issues with families with disabilities, like incorporating indicators on the diapers to aid blind parents.

While Expecting Relief has their hands stretched towards the future, their feet will always be planted firmly in their Brooklyn roots and community-centered ideals. “We really care for our community,” Bracetty said. For Expecting Relief, there is no greater joy than to be told they have been a “lifesaver” to countless families right in their backyard.

This story was written by Ellie Chang, one of Brooklyn Org’s January 2025 interns from Brown University’s Careers in the Common Good internship program.