Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (New York)

The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) announced 11 new grants totaling $4.8 million to support innovative solutions to some of the opioid crisis’ most challenging problems. FORE’s Innovation Program is funding projects that combine approaches from diverse fields and engage multi-disciplinary teams to encourage work on some of the crisis’ most intractable challenges:

  • Professional Education and Training to Address Stigma. While there is an increase in available professional education on addiction and recovery among health care, education, legal, and criminal justice professionals, these subjects are still not routinely taught. Projects in this focus area include innovative approaches to educating professionals and addressing stigma.
  • Timely and Actionable Data. New ways of generating real-time and actionable data are sorely needed for all levels of government to appropriately respond to and prevent overdoses, including through integrating new and untapped data sources across different sectors for a more in-depth understanding of the crisis.
  • Supporting the Transition from Treatment to Recovery. In addition to access to treatment, the need is great to aid highly vulnerable patients transitioning from treatment to long-term recovery, including through novel uses of emerging technologies.

Grantees include:

  • Agency for Substance Abuse Prevention—Faith-Based Support Specialist Training. Principal Investigator: Seyram Selase, ICPS, CPM. ($164,470)
  • Brown University—Understanding Drug Use Within a Rapidly Changing Supply: An Ethnographic and Toxicologic Investigation to Improve Overdose Prevention and Supply Surveillance Communication. Principal Investigators: Alexandra Collins, PhD and Rachel Wightman, MD. ($564,319)
  • Friends Research Institute Inc.—Doing Right at Birth: Reducing Stigma and Improving Recovery through Professional Education and Around Child Welfare Reporting Principal Investigators: Mishka Terplan, MD, MPH and Sarah Roberts, DrPH ($596,921)
  • Medical College of Wisconsin—Precision Epidemiology and the Opioid Crisis: Using Next-Generation Geospatial Analyses to Guide Community-Level Responses in Diverse and Segregated Metropolitan Regions. Principal Investigators: John Mantsch, PhD, Rina Ghose, PhD, and Peter Brunzelle. ($600,000)
  • Montefiore Medical Center—Advancing Equity in Urine Drug Testing in Primary Care-Based Buprenorphine Treatment Principal Investigator: Mariya Masyukova, MD, MS. ($298,699)
  • New York State Psychiatric Institute/Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc.—Health Technology Applications to Support the Integration of Care for Individuals with Substance Use Disorder, Principal Investigator: Harold Pincus, MD. ($94,595)
  • Temple University—Stop Overdose Deaths: Monitoring Comprehensiveness of State Policy to Prevent Overdose Deaths. Principal Investigators: Scott Burris, JD, and Nicolas Terry, LLM. ($600,000)
  • Tufts University School of Medicine—Syndromic Surveillance of the Opioid Crisis in Lowell, Massachusetts: Data to Action and Evaluation. Principal Investigators: Shikhar Shrestha, PhD, Thomas Stopka, PhD, and Jennifer Pustz, PhD. ($475,521)
  • University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Foundation Inc.—Novel Organizational Simulation Training to Improve Graduate’s Mastery & Attitudes (NO STIGMA) Principal Investigators: Mary McCurry, PhD, Monika Schuler, PhD, and Jennifer Viveiros, PhD. ($591,485)
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—Randomized Trial and Analytic Chemistry Innovations to Optimize Drug Alerts. Principal Investigator: Nabarun Dasgupta, PhD. ($599,488)
  • Weill Cornell Medicine—Improving Physicians’ Self-Awareness and Attitudes Towards Patients with Substance Use Disorders via a Role-Playing Virtual Tool Principal Investigator: Jonathan Avery, MD. ($199,516)

Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust (Phoenix, AZ)

In the second half of 2021, Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust awarded $140,961,650 in grants. This total includes $17,811,650 in its regular and COVID-response grantmaking and $123,150,000 “Now is the Moment” surprise grants awarded to 71 local nonprofits in September.

The Trust nurtures communities and individuals in Maricopa County, Arizona by investing in people and by maintaining a strategic, long-term focus through investments in organizations and initiatives that enrich health, well-being, and opportunity for the people of Maricopa County. But in 2020, a series of crises, including the devastating health, social, and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the stark, painful reckonings about inequity and racial injustice, compelled the Trust to respond differently and immediately. Grantmaking in fall 2021 continued to place special emphasis on organizations serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

Below are the grants to human services organizations:

  • A New Leaf ($200,000)
  • A Stepping Stone Foundation ($50,000)
  • About Care, Inc. ($75,000)
  • AGUILA Youth Leadership Institute ($75,000)
  • Arizona Autism United ($150,000)
  • Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Inc. ($50,000)
  • Arizona Centers for Comprehensive Education and Life Skills ($100,000)
  • Arizona Faith Network ($50,000)
  • Arizona Recreation Center for the Handicapped ($50,000)
  • Asian Pacific Community in Action ($75,000)
  • Assistance League of Phoenix ($50,000)
  • Association for Supportive Child Care ($200,000)
  • Aster Aging, Inc. ($225,000)
  • AZCEND ($200,000)
  • Be A Leader Foundation ($100,000)
  • Benevilla ($200,000)
  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona ($125,000)
  • Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale ($150,000)
  • Boys & Girls Clubs of the Valley ($150,000)
  • Boys Hope Girls Hope of Arizona ($100,000)
  • The Centers for Habilitation ($150,000)
  • Central Arizona Shelter Services ($150,000)
  • Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. ($200,000)
  • Child & Family Resources, Inc. ($150,000)
  • Christ Church Lutheran [Creciendo Unidos/Growing Together] ($75,000)
  • Chrysalis Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence ($150,000)
  • Circle the City ($150,000)
  • Corporation for Supportive Housing ($25,000)
  • Discovery Triangle [Activate Food Arizona] ($100,000)
  • DUET: Partners in Health & Aging ($225,000)
  • Dysart Community Center ($50,000)
  • Esperança, Inc. ($50,000)
  • Eye Care for Kids ($25,000)
  • Family Promise-Greater Phoenix ($50,000)
  • Foundation for Blind Children ($100,000)
  • Foundation for Senior Living ($200,000)
  • Friendly House, Inc. ($200,000)
  • Future for KIDS ($100,000)
  • Girl Scouts Arizona-Cactus Pine Council, Inc. ($150,000)
  • Greater Phoenix Urban League, Inc. ($200,000)
  • Homeless Youth Connection, Inc. ($100,000)
  • Hope Community Services ($225,000)
  • Hospice of the Valley ($75,000)
  • Human Services Campus, Inc. ($225,000)
  • ICAN ($175,000)
  • International Rescue Committee [Phoenix] ($150,000)
  • Jewish Family and Children’s Service ($150,000)
  • Jobs for Arizona’s Graduates, Inc. ($100,000)
  • Junior Achievement of Arizona, Inc. ($125,000)
  • Lifewell Behavioral Wellness ($75,000)
  • Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest ($200,000)
  • Maggie’s Place ($125,000)
  • Make Way for Books ($25,000)
  • Mercy Housing Southwest ($175,000)
  • Mission of Mercy-Arizona ($100,000)
  • The Neighborhood Christian Clinic ($125,000)
  • Neighborhood Ministries, Inc. ($125,000)
  • Neighbors Who Care, Inc. ($75,000)
  • New Life Center ($150,000)
  • New Pathways for Youth ($225,000)
  • Northwest Valley Connect ($75,000)
  • NourishPHX ($200,000)
  • One Small Step ($50,000)
  • one⋅n⋅ten ($225,000)
  • Open Hearts ($150,000)
  • Phoenix Allies for Community Health ($50,000)
  • Phoenix Public Library Foundation [The College Depot] ($100,000)
  • Raising Special Kids ($100,000)
  • Rebuilding Together Valley of the Sun ($75,000)
  • Rehoboth Community Development Corporation ($75,000)
  • Save the Family Foundation of Arizona ($150,000)
  • Sojourner Center ($150,000)
  • Southern AZ Association for the Visually Impaired ($100,000)
  • Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center ($150,000)
  • Southwest Human Development ($150,000)
  • Joseph the Worker ($100,000)
  • Stand for Children Arizona ($100,000)
  • Tanner Community Development Corporation ($100,000)
  • Tempe Community Action Agency, Inc. ($200,000)
  • UMOM New Day Centers ($150,000)
  • Zion Institute ($225,000)

Contact: Karen Leland at 480.556.7125 or kleland@pipertrust.org.

Phoenixville Community Health Foundation (Phoenixville, PA)

Phoenixville Community Health Foundation (PCHF) has identified mental health as a major component of a strategic plan guiding the organization’s work for the next three years. The strategic plan includes four goals designed to help PCHF meet its larger goal of making the greater Phoenixville area one of the healthiest regions in Pennsylvania, even as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic simultaneously strains resources and creates unprecedented demand for public health services. The plan seeks to:

  • Ensure equitable access to high-quality and affordable health and human services for all residents
  • Promote and strengthen access to timely mental health and substance abuse services, especially crisis intervention
  • Support efforts to prevent homelessness, and provide services for those experiencing housing insecurity, and expand opportunities for healthy, safe, and affordable housing
  • Enhance the quality of services in the region by investing in nonprofit capacity building and development, and by encouraging partnerships and innovation

The PCHF’s strategic plan also incorporates efforts to build new community partnerships and strengthen existing ones through more equity, greater representation of marginalized groups, and the principles of “trust-based philanthropy.”

To learn more, click here.

Contact: Viviann Schorle at 484.996.3322 or vschorle@pchf1.org.

Point32Health Foundation (Canton, MA)

The Point32Health Foundation announced that ten community organizations across the region will receive grants totaling more than $1.1 million. Funding will support work to advance policies and practices that address disparities and create more inclusive communities.

Building on the legacy of service and giving established by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation and Tufts Health Plan Foundation, the Point32Health Foundation will work with communities to support, advocate and advance healthier lives for everyone. These grants advance systems-level change to remove barriers responsible for inequities in New England communities.

The ten new grants will go to:

  • Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation—to train diverse older adult residents of Boston’s Allston/Brighton neighborhood as Age-Friendly Ambassadors and housing policy advocates. ($25,000)
  • Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc—to establish policy and practice changes that improve nursing home care statewide. ($65,000)
  • GreenRoots—to continue organizing older adults on transportation solutions for people with low incomes in Chelsea, Massachusetts. ($140,000 over two years)
  • Hartford Food System, Inc.—to engage older adults and youth to inform the development of the Connecticut Food Action Plan. ($55,000)
  • LivableStreets Transportation Alliance of Boston, Inc.—to organize diverse older adults to advocate for fare-free bus programs in Massachusetts. ($80,000 over two years)
  • Massachusetts Law Reform Institute—to focus on retaining positive changes that build on SNAP policy adopted during the pandemic, increasing federal and state funding, and boosting enrollment and retention of older adults. ($65,000)
  • Massachusetts Public Health Association—to develop a corps of older adult advocates to strengthen local public health, and advance housing and transportation policy changes centered on equity. ($210,163 over three years)
  • New Hampshire Legal Assistance—to continue to advocate for statewide healthy aging priorities developed in collaboration with the New Hampshire Alliance for Healthy Aging. ($195,000 over three years)
  • Progreso Latino, Inc.—to employ an older adult resident as organizer and increase the advocacy capacity of older people in Central Falls and Pawtucket, Rhode Island. ($150,000 over two years)
  • WalkBoston—to create more walkable age-friendly communities through state and municipal policy change. ($165,000 over three years)

Contact: Alrie McNiff Daniels at 781.612.2080 or alrie.daniels@point32health.org.

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