In December of 2022, Nieisha Deed was awarded the Vital Village Innovation Award for her pioneering work for black mental health in Boston and unfaltering drive to improve the community’s well being.

Nieisha Deed is a Boston native, educated at Howard University, with over fifteen years of experience as a corporate accounting professional. Due to her personal and familial struggles with mental health, including living with bipolar disorder and surviving a suicide attempt in 2017, Nieisha decided a change was due. She redirected her skills and drive to helping black Bostonians with their mental health and wellbeing. In September of 2021, born out of her passion to help others, Nieisha launched PureSpark.

In December of 2022, Dominique Bellegarde was awarded the Servant Leadership Award for her unwavering and exceptional service to the Boston community to promote family wellbeing. 

Miss Dominique Bellegarde is one of four daughters to Haitian immigrants who came to America “to have a better life.” Being raised in Boston surrounded by Haitian culture and speaking Haitian Creole, Dominique developed a nurturing, supportive role within her family and local community. She tutored her cousins, worked as a nanny, became a lifeguard, and has always focused on the wellbeing of children and families, even as a child herself. And she not only fell into a role of service, but has always wanted to serve others, as exemplified by her childhood aspiration to become a teacher or a nurse.

Miss Dominique Bellegarde is inspired by her role as a mother to be an example for her children. She is a person of her word, making things happen using her send of purpose and people skills to continually serve others. She said she doesn't want her aspirations to die with her, but to leave behind a legacy of open love.

In December of 2022 Maria McKnight was awarded the Unsung Hero Award for her exceptional service to the Boston community to promote child and family wellbeing. 

Being a librarian these days goes beyond wandering among stocked books and beyond the library walls. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Children's Librarians across Boston Public Library neighborhood branches have dedicated their time and efforts to creating an outlet for children and families to come together for book readings, songs and activities focused on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) with Children's Mental Health Storytimes. 

Vital Village Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing (NOW) is built upon pillars of equity, dignity, and community-centered leadership. As NOW’s work has grown over the last several years, there has been an intentional focus on how to build and support local capacity to drive the transformation they want to see in their community. In the late spring of 2021 NOW partnered with 15 community champions from across the country to embark on a journey of reimagining funding structures to center, honor, and uphold the values of local communities and coalitions. The group began to explore cooperatives as a model for restructuring funding in a way that uplifted partnership rather than power. The practice of self-determination is a core principle of cooperatives movements and structures, which makes room for autonomy, while also celebrating the wide array of wisdom, knowledge, and talents that exist within our communities.