It all started because the 18-time NBA champs \u2013 and their affiliated nonprofit, the Shamrock Foundation<\/a> \u2013 identified a critical need in the Boston community: lots of new mothers weren\u2019t attending critical postpartum doctor appointments.<\/p>\n \u201cForty percent of the moms at the Boston Medical Center were not returning for their appointments because they didn\u2019t have transportation, and [due to] other barriers,\u201d Kash Cannon, the Celtics\u2019 Director of Community Engagement, told CelticsBlog. \u201cAnd so we started brainstorming with them, and we thought it was a perfect opportunity to impact the landscape of maternal health, and specifically Black maternal health. That\u2019s how the partnership really started.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything moved quickly once a need was identified. A longtime Celtics season ticket holder who owned a car dealership helped the organization find an ambulance that could be repurposed to become a medical clinic on wheels.<\/p>\n \u201cWe bought that ambulance, we gutted it, and then we retrofitted it with a bunch of maternal equipment,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cAnd then we donated that to Boston Medical Center. That was the birth of the Curbside Care program.\u201d<\/p>\n The Curbside Care program has served more than 500 mothers in two years. Boston Celtics<\/p>\n Curbside Care has benefitted more than 500 women in two years<\/p>\n Thanks to Curbside Care, BMC has been able to routinely visit high-need areas in Hyde Park, Mattapan, and Dorchester since 2023. They\u2019ve provided women with comprehensive healthcare appointments at their doorsteps, committed to improving health outcomes for young mothers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s essentially a new model of care,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cSo it\u2019s newborn care, lactation support, and postpartum depression screening. They do blood pressure. They do counseling on preconception health, chronic disease management. They assist with food insecurity issues, because BMC has a food pantry. So, if a mom is being seen on the unit and she expresses that she\u2019s having issues with food security, they provide that. They provide wraparound services and a holistic approach.\u201d<\/p>\n The women are recruited from BMC\u2019s prenatal clinic. Patients who choose to enroll in Curbside Care are seen by a Community Wellness Advocate and receive a full needs assessment. Then, in the first six weeks of their baby\u2019s life, they are visited by the mobile health unit at least three times to ensure all of their needs are met.<\/p>\n All of it is part of the team\u2019s commitment to addressing racial injustice and social inequities in the Greater Boston area, a commitment that was codified after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, when the team launched Boston Celtics United<\/a>. That initiative emphasizes combating issues that have impacted the Black community as a result of the nation\u2019s long-term history of systemic racism. Curbside Care has become one of its flagship programs.<\/p>\n In the U.S., Black women were three to four times more likely to die during childbirth than their white peers, per the CDC<\/a>. That reality caught the attention of the Celtics.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything that we do really starts with data,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cIf there\u2019s data that exists within our communities, and we\u2019re like, this is horrific, and we can\u2019t sit around with all of these resources in this type of platform and do nothing \u2014 that\u2019s really what gets our attention and where we want to focus our efforts on. And so that\u2019s essentially how we came upon Curbside Care.\u201d<\/p>\n Derrick White has become a champion for Curbside Care<\/p>\n Derrick White has become especially involved in the program, attending all of the Celtics\u2019 Curbside Care events in recent years. One year, he gifted all of the mothers high-quality strollers. This year, he gave all of the moms enrolled in Curbside Care brand-new, fancy car seats.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just an incredible person,\u201d Cannon said. \u201cHe really just latched on to the program. All of our players get really excited about our work, but Curbside Care in particular really pulled at Derrick White\u2019s heartstrings.\u201d<\/p>\n Derrick White gifts mothers car seats at a Curbside Care program event in January. Boston Celtics<\/p>\n In less than two years, the program has served more than 500 mothers, all of whom received lactation support and were screened for material needs and postpartum depression. In addition to working with the Boston Medical Center, the partnership has also evolved to include Point32 Health<\/a>, a nonprofit health and well-being organization.<\/p>\n Since launching Curbside Care, the Celtics have met with BMC on a biweekly basis to get updates on how things are going and discuss other ways the organization can be supportive.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the Celtics leverage their brand \u2014 whether that\u2019s the involvement of players like White, their mascots, or whatever else \u2014 to make programs particularly engaging.<\/p>\n \u201cWe come up with a program that addresses a need, and then we add what I like to call the Celtic sizzle \u2014 whether that\u2019s players, it\u2019s Lucky, anything that gets the people excited and actually moves them in the direction that\u2019s going to potentially be life changing for them.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/KsLfHRAg.jpeg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Derrick](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/jWzM0aFw-1.jpeg\"\/)
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