Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation (Detroit, MI)

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation (BCBSM Foundation), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (Blue Cross), United Dairy Industry of Michigan, and Blue Cross Complete of Michigan recently announced they are jointly investing $273,000 to support local food pantries. Community members visiting these pantries will have improved access to nutrient-rich fresh food options that require refrigeration, such as dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. Forty-one pantries will receive a refrigeration unit valued at up to $7,000, personalized technical assistance to enhance pantry operations, and nutrition education support.

In addition to the support for local food pantries, the BCBSM Foundation also awarded seven research grants to Michigan researchers. Among the grantees are:

  • Calvin University, Dr. Danielle McBride—to explore how to improve early detection of health effects from PFAS exposure and health care responses by providing direct services to affected individuals and increasing health care provider awareness. ($50,000)
  • Calvin University, Dr. Toluwani Adekunle—to explore how health care consumers and providers perceive medical mistrust and its implications for integrating AI in health care. ($55,000)
  • Michigan State University, Dr. Hannah Bolder—to support a project that will advance the understanding of health outcomes in maternal health and health care among Medicaid-insured mothers with disabilities (physical, intellectual, and sensory) compared to Medicaid. ($50,000)
  • Michigan State University, Dr. Mona Hanna—to fund the Rx Kids program that provides financial support to expectant mothers and infants. A study will evaluate its impact on maternal well-being. The program aims to improve health and economic security. ($75,000)
  • Trinity Health, Dr. Antoine Sassine—to enhance hepatocellular carcinoma screening rates and awareness among health care providers and at-risk populations. ($10,000)
  • University of Michigan, Dr. Michelle Moniz—to support a project that aims to identify effective Quality Initiative strategies to reduce cesarean rates. ($50,000)
  • Wayne State University, Dr. Kathleen (Lucy) McGoron—to support the Parenting Young Children Check-up tech-based program supporting parents. A clinical trial will evaluate its effectiveness in Detroit, Michigan. The study aims to improve child behavior and parenting outcomes. ($40,000)

Finally, the BCBSM Foundation recently awarded 13 community matching grants to:

  • 70X7 Life Recovery—to support addressing the critical mental health needs of individuals transitioning from incarceration back into their communities. ($20,000)
  • Detroit Public Schools Community District Foundation—to support DPSCD Health Hubs which provide free and equitable health care for Detroit, Michigan youth and their families by utilizing its existing school-based clinics as a foundation. ($30,000)
  • Great Lakes Recovery Center Foundation—to increase staffing support to come into greater alignment with State of Michigan licensing protocols for medically monitored care as well as the ASAM 3.7 Withdrawal Management level of care. ($40,000)
  • Health Department of Northwest Michigan—to provide an evidence-based program to prevent youth initiation of vaping in rural communities. ($15,000)
  • Heart of West Michigan United Way—to support the development of a sustainable and community-informed hub for non-medical drivers of health in Kent County, Michigan. ($30,000)
  • Livingston County Catholic Charities—to expand behavioral health programs to an off-site counseling partnership to provide direct mental health support for residents at Bethel Suites. ($40,000)
  • The Manna Project, Inc.—to support a mobile food distribution program in rural food deserts for people that are homebound or lack transportation. ($15,000)
  • Michigan State Medical Society Foundation—to support the 29th Annual Conference on Bioethics (Cases that Haunt Us: Examining Medical Ethics Issues Through the Particularly Difficult Cases). ($36,000)
  • MiSide—in partnership with the University of Michigan to create a culturally tailored intervention for highly vulnerable adolescents presenting at risk of suicide. ($35,000)
  • North Flint Neighborhood Action Council—to support group therapy sessions to individuals dealing with trauma-related mental health challenges, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, grief, depression, and substance use disorder. ($32,500)
  • Shelter of Flint, Inc.—to provide social and emotional support services for children to help them cope with and recover from the trauma of homelessness. ($29,500)
  • The Shul—to support the “Grandfriends” program that mitigates senior loneliness and fosters self-esteem and strong relationships with elders for socially and emotionally struggling adolescents. ($40,000)
  • Volunteer for Dental—to provide access to dental care and oral health education from volunteer dental offices in exchange for community service. ($16,000)

Contact: Elba Huerta at foundation@bcbsm.com.

Ethel and James Flinn Foundation (Detroit, MI)

Ethel and James Flinn Foundation awarded 60 grants totaling $3 million to mental health organizations across southeast Michigan. With the goal of increasing access to effective mental health treatment for as many individuals as possible, these grants will support efforts in the following categories: Evidence-Based Practices; Capacity Building Opportunities; and Awareness, Education, and Outreach Mini-Grants programs.

The grantees are:

  • Alternatives For Girls—to support trauma-informed behavioral health for Detroit, Michigan youth and their young children experiencing homelessness. ($75,000)
  • American Indian Health and Family Services—to strengthen capacity to sustain and grow culturally grounded behavioral health services. ($75,000)
  • Association for Children’s Mental Health—for general operating support. ($15,000)
  • Autism Alliance of Michigan—for general operating support. ($25,000)
  • The Board of Governors, Wayne State University—to create a sustainable, data-informed youth justice system in Wayne County, Michigan that prioritizes services over incarceration. ($200,000)
  • Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan—to provide behavioral health services and advocacy support for youth. ($75,000)
  • Center for Employment Opportunities, Inc.—to provide immediate, effective, and comprehensive employment services to people recently released from incarceration. ($75,000)
  • Centers for Family Development, Inc. Doing Business As Black Family Development, Inc.—to expand access to mental health services for youth. ($75,000)
  • Children’s Center of Wayne County—to implement summer support to ensure year-round care for children in school-based mental health services. ($70,000)
  • Citizens for Prison Reform—to support a rehabilitative model for addressing substance use disorders in Washtenaw County Jail. ($5,000)
  • Communities In Schools of Michigan—to develop substance-use disorder interventions and prevention programs impacting students and families. ($65,000)
  • Covenant House Michigan—to support team training, certification, and retention in evidence-based approaches for working with youth experiencing homelessness. ($50,000)
  • D House of Angels—to educate and support families recovering from domestic violence and related trauma. ($5,000)
  • Detroit Public Safety Foundation—to support the Mental Health Co-Response Program, a public health-centered model to address behavioral health crises. ($100,000)
  • Dutton Farm Inc.—to educate staff on best practices in behavioral health, person-centered planning, and employment support and to enhance community outreach. ($5,000)
  • The Family Center of Grosse Pointe and Harper Woods—to support a community and school-based book club featuring an expert panel of local therapists and physicians. ($5,000)
  • FORCE Detroit—to embed a licensed therapist to deliver trauma-informed mental health care for violence-impacted youth. ($75,000)
  • Freedom House Detroit—to offer onsite, evidence-based group and individual therapy to survivors of extreme trauma. ($100,000)
  • Growth Works—to give at-risk youth tools to prevent violence and build peaceful leadership. ($5,000)
  • Guest House, Inc.—to provide addiction and mental health resources. ($5,000)
  • Hands Across the Water, Inc.—to implement an integrated intake, records, billing system, and evaluation system. ($65,000)
  • Harlee and Harper Women’s Association—to promote healthier outcomes and reduce maternal mortality rates through mental health education and advocacy. ($5,000)
  • Hegira Health, Inc.—to offer same-day walk-in behavioral health treatment to eliminate appointment barriers and streamline processes. ($75,000)
  • Henry Ford Health System—to develop clear and equitable paths into the mental health system for all. ($100,000)
  • Henry Ford Health System—to train physicians to treat alcohol use disorders by implementing screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment. ($100,000)
  • Henry Ford Health System—to identify veterans at risk of suicide and connect them with services by implementing Zero Suicide Program. ($100,000)
  • Jewish Family Service—to develop a Dialectal Behavioral Therapy model for case management and behavioral health clients. ($62,500)
  • Judson Center—to pilot “Our Early Years” Infant Mental Health Program in Oakland County, Michigan. ($75,000)
  • Kevin’s Song—for general operating support. ($15,000)
  • Life Directions—to implement a program that mitigates effects of trauma among Detroit Hispanic and African American youth. ($50,000)
  • LifeLab Kids—to expand direct mental health counseling to children with diagnosed disorders. ($50,000)
  • Mariners Inn—to enhance electronic health record systems to expand access, improve care, and support better outcomes. ($50,000)
  • Mental Health Association in Michigan—for general operating support. ($50,000)
  • Michigan Breastfeeding Network—to support group co-facilitated education on breastfeeding and mental health to community members. ($5,000)
  • Michigan’s Children—for general operating support. ($65,000)
  • MiSide Health—to co-locate integrated behavioral health hubs at four Brilliant Detroit sites. ($60,000)
  • NAMI Metro—for general operating support. ($15,000)
  • NAMI Michigan—for general operating support. ($50,000)
  • NAMI Washtenaw County—for general operating support. ($15,000)
  • New Day Foundation for Families—to provide a listening ear, books, resources, and therapist referrals to the community. ($5,000)
  • Phree Space Inc.—to support youth with wellness kits and mental health education. ($5,000)
  • Oakland Community Health Network—to divert at-risk youth and assist adjudicated youth through interactive journaling. ($75,000)
  • Oakland Community Health Network—to establish a behavioral health urgent care center to expand continuum of care in Oakland County, Michigan. ($100,000)
  • Oakland Family Services—to enhance behavioral health care access and improve efficiency by integrating technology and training clinicians. ($50,000)
  • Organization of Exonerees—to provide mental health support to people who have been wrongfully convicted. ($75,000)
  • Recovery Action Network of Michigan—for outreach promoting mental health education, recovery support, and stigma reduction in Western Wayne County, Michigan. ($5,000)
  • Regents of the University of Michigan—to develop a system dynamics model for adolescent mental health services in Washtenaw County, Michigan. ($75,000)
  • Rose Hill Foundation—to expand the Peer Support Program for residential treatment clients. ($50,000)
  • Ruth Ellis Center Inc.—to provide peer support services for young people. ($75,000)
  • Samaritas—to provide evidence-based substance use disorder, behavioral health, and women’s specialty treatments for 350 mothers and adults. ($75,000)
  • Spectrum Juvenile Justice Services—to screen and treat co-occurring trauma, depression, and substance use among justice-involved adolescent males. ($50,000)
  • Teacher’s Pet: Dogs and Kids Learning Together—to promote mental wellness through a trauma-informed, animal-assisted education program that fosters emotional healing. ($5,000)
  • Vista Maria—to provide Dialectical Behavior Therapy Training for 165+ direct-care staff in residential treatment settings. ($75,000)
  • Washtenaw Area Council for Children—to educate students about online safety and mental health in today’s digital world. ($5,000)
  • Wayne County Probate Court Behavioral Health Unit—to support families and caregivers of individuals experiencing their first psychotic episode in Wayne County, Michigan. ($5,000)
  • Wellness Plan Medical Centers Foundation—to enhance children’s mental health with evidence-based practices. ($50,000)
  • Zaman International—to provide a culturally competent mental health program adapted to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee women. ($100,000)

To learn more about the work of the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation, click here.

UniHealth Foundation (Pasadena, CA)

UniHealth Foundation awarded $2.1 million in grants during fall 2025. The foundation’s most recent grantees are doing innovative work, ranging from addressing the impact of climate on health to advancing improved mental health services for youth.

Grantees include:

  • City of Hope, Monsignor Clement Connolly Professorship in Medical Oncology to foster groundbreaking advancements in clinical care and scientific discoveries. ($50,000)
  • CSULB 49er Foundation, Advancing Violence and Trauma Healing for Californians—to expand its evidence-based trauma treatment training program aimed at developing a diverse pipeline of mental health clinicians who plan to specialize in meeting the complex psychosocial needs of victims of crime and violence. ($250,000)
  • Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, Healthy Homes and Resilient Communities—to support its “Promotores de Salud for Heat and Preparedness” project which provides crucial skills to capably address, prevent, and reduce long-term health impacts of extreme heat, while promoting resilience and emergency preparedness for natural disasters in frontline communities. ($300,000)
  • Family Service Association—to launch a two-year Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation program that addresses the growing behavioral health crisis among children ages 0-5 in some of their Child Development Centers. The program embeds mental health clinicians within early childhood settings to focus on building adult capacity to support young children’s mental health. ($200,000)
  • Five Acres, A Community-Based Approach to Mental Health Outreach, Education, and Service for Children, Youth and Families in Southern California—to support the Wear Your Heart initiative, an outreach and education program to improve awareness and access to mental health and well-being services for children and families across Southern California. ($100,000)
  • Homeboy Industries, Health and Wellness Counseling for Formerly Incarcerated—to expand its trauma-informed clinical services by using neurofeedback and individual therapy to help clients process and heal from intergenerational trauma, grief, and crisis situations. Funds will also help their clinical team build upon their therapeutical expertise through advanced training, ensuring high-quality care for clients in crisis and those experiencing complex trauma. ($150,000)
  • ONEgeneration, Older Adult Trauma Recovery and Support Project—to expand its Mental Health and Wellness Program, which offers dedicated trauma-informed clinical counseling to older adults and caregivers directly impacted by the recent wildfires. The project predominately addresses post-traumatic stress disorder or acute stress reactions due to the traumatic experience associated with the wildfires, such as total or partial loss of homes, evacuations, and firsthand observation of destruction of a community people have considered home for many years of their lives. ($150,000)
  • Francis High School of La Cañada Flintridge, Mental Health & Wellness Program—to redirect their wellness focus towards proactive prevention measures, mental health education, and resiliency training with the goal to help sustain the mental health and well-being of students. ($100,000)
  • University of California, Los Angeles, Reducing Health Impacts from LA Wildfires: Community Partnered Wildfire Health Training and Trusted Messenger Outreach—to design a wildfire health training curriculum, with community input, that will make the morass of technical information relevant and valuable for community members as they navigate systems and make decisions that will affect their long-term health relative to the fires. ($750,000)
  • YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, Expanding Youth Mental Health Support—to support staffing, training, culturally responsive programming, and evaluation for youth ages 13-18 across the San Fernando Valley in California, focusing on those from underserved communities, including foster and systems impacted youth, youth with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and those from low-income households. ($200,000)

To learn more, click here.

Merck Foundation (Rahway, NJ)

The Merck Foundation announced the launch of the Collaborative for Equity in Cardiac Care, a $22 million, five-year initiative aimed at enhancing access to high-quality, person-centered health care for people living with heart conditions in the U.S. Eleven organizations are receiving grants to support the development and implementation of evidence-informed, comprehensive programs to improve health outcomes in communities where access to timely care for cardiovascular disease is a challenge.

The foundation is providing grants to select nonprofit health care and public health organizations working with local community-based groups. As a Collaborative, they will help bridge gaps in the delivery of care for a range of heart conditions and advance sustainable, and potentially scalable, approaches to improve the lives of people with heart disease.

Collaborative program grantees include:

  • Capital Health System (Trenton, New Jersey)
  • The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness (Madison, Wisconsin)
  • Gallup Community Health (Gallup, New Mexico)
  • Georgia State University Research Foundation/Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement (Atlanta, Georgia)
  • La Clínica del Pueblo (Washington, D.C.)
  • MedNorth Health Center (New Hanover, North Carolina)
  • Providence Medical Foundation (Sonoma County, California)
  • Public Health Institute/Population Health Innovation Lab (Lake County, California)
  • University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
  • UPMC Center for High-Value Health Care (McKeesport, Pennsylvania)
  • Zufall Health Center (Morris County, New Jersey)

The Foundation is also supporting the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity as the Collaborative’s National Program Office (NPO), which will provide technical assistance to grantees as they build local partnerships and implement their programs. The NPO will also foster peer-to-peer learning among grantees, conduct a cross-site evaluation and disseminate the Collaborative’s results and lessons learned.

The Collaborative for Equity in Cardiac Care builds on the Foundation’s legacy of investing in community-focused programs that improve access to high-quality health care in underserved communities, including the Alliance for Equity in Cancer Care, which is currently operating in seven states.

Contact: John Cummins at john.cummins2@merck.com & Ned Ehrbar at ned.ehrbar@merck.com.

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