Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation (Boston, MA)

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation announced $250,000 in grant funding to support five community-based projects with strong potential to be scaled to improve access to care while advancing health equity.

In addition to funding its major grantmaking programs, the foundation regularly awards Special Initiatives grants that respond to needs identified by grantees and their communities. The projects aim to positively impact health or health care access for Massachusetts residents who have been economically, socially, culturally, or racially marginalized.

The Board of Directors recently approved one-year, $50,000 grants to each of the following nonprofit organizations and their projects:

  • Community Servings—to pilot a “step-down program” for clients who have received medically tailored meals but have become well enough to transition away from home-delivery service. The program will provide a pathway to address food and nutrition insecurity. The step-down program, starting with 75 individuals, will provide medically tailored food boxes, a cookbook with simple recipes, cooking demonstration videos, nutrition education, and support from a registered dietitian nutritionist. Community Servings plans to expand this Food is Medicine intervention to as many as 500 clients annually with support from health care contracts and philanthropy.
  • Luminosity Behavioral Health Services—to develop a more responsive behavioral health model in communities of color throughout southeastern Massachusetts. As the co-convenor and fiscal agent for the South East Multicultural Providers Association (SEMPA), Luminosity and its collaborative partners are aiming to end the “scavenger hunt” for supportive, culturally sensitive therapeutic interventions that exist in the region. SEMPA members will implement cross-agency agreements to address the availability of services, youth advocacy, and referrals. The goal is to train and certify 60 staff members in applying trauma-specific interventions, create a standardized referral process and policies to reduce long waitlists across the participating organizations, and increase the pool of multicultural health professionals and youth mentors serving the needs of Brockton families.
  • Martha’s Vineyard Community Services—to create a co-responder pilot program to address the lack of behavioral health care access for island residents, who typically engage with mental health and substance use services only through 911 calls to police. There is often an inequity in accessing services by racial and ethnic communities for various reasons, including stigma. The new program would link a qualified behavioral health clinician with local law enforcement to create a pathway to community-based services, diverting residents from detainment, arrest, or transport to the hospital emergency department. The organization plans to train up to 10 clinicians, develop an emergency response schedule with law enforcement, and embed clinicians in the island’s six towns.
  • Prisoners’ Legal Services—to develop a project to increase access to medical parole by creating an infrastructure for pro bono attorneys and medical advocates to collaborate on prisoner petitions. Prisons are not equipped to handle the health care needs of seriously ill or dying prisoners, and medical parole is seen as the best alternative. Since medical parole became possible in 2018, less than 12 percent of the 587 petitions have been granted—leaving individuals to die or languish in prison even though their health needs could be met in the community with far less burden on the public. To increase support for eligible incarcerated individuals, the nonprofit will identify and train pro bono attorneys who can respond to referrals, forge connections between the attorneys and pro bono medical providers, and develop resource materials and communications to family members.
  • Walker Inc.—to conduct a feasibility study for a therapeutic preschool model and develop an effective intervention for the growing number of preschool-age children with challenging behaviors who are at risk of suspension or expulsion from early education and care programs in the Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. Preschoolers are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of children in grades K-12, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Black children make up a disproportionate number, and preschool-age boys are much more likely than girls to be removed from school. Research shows this can adversely influence developmental, health, and education outcomes. Walker Inc. will research the issue, outline a sustainable funding model, and prepare to launch a pilot preschool program.

Contact: Greg Turner at greg@ballcg.com.

Blue Shield of California Foundation (Oakland, CA)

Blue Shield of California Foundation approved 15 grants directing $5.2 million to communities statewide at its first meeting of 2024. The foundation’s mission is to end domestic violence and make California the healthiest state, focusing on Californians of color with low incomes, who are most affected by violence and inequity.

Two of the largest grants build on previous work with groups organizing for change in California: $1 million for the California Domestic Workers Coalition and $1.5 million for Safety and Healing in Networks of Equity (SHINE) collaboratives that are finding innovative ways to prevent domestic violence. The SHINE cohort members are The Center at McKinleyville, RYSE, Mujeres Poderosas Amorosas, Promesa Boyle Heights, and East African Men and Boys Collaborative.

In the foundation’s efforts to change policy and systems in California, it’s often necessary to change hearts and minds first, with compelling stories from the communities of color it serves. Two grants this quarter, of $100,000 to Alianza Metropolitan News and $150,000 to California Health Report, support journalism that will highlight emerging solutions in domestic violence prevention. Other grants in its work to break the cycle of domestic violence include $200,000 to Homeboy Industries, for groundbreaking efforts to use restorative practices in healing from domestic violence; and $250,000 to a leading sexual violence prevention organization, ValorUS.

The foundation is proud to partner with coalitions that are strengthening economic security and mobility for millions of Californians—an important way to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence. A $150,000 grant to Equal Rights Advocates will help the Stronger California Advocates Network, which focuses on the economic security, safety, and wellness of women and families in California and has logged 50 legislative wins in the last 10 years. A $1 million grant to the California Domestic Workers’ Coalition, a foundation partner since 2019, is an example of its long-term support for care workers, many of them undocumented and underpaid women. The coalition excels at bringing the voices of workers into advocacy and policy change statewide.

The foundation’s evaluation and data strategy team is partnering with organizations that can improve the quality and quantity of data about the health equity and domestic violence challenges facing Californians of color with low incomes. Grants this quarter include $200,000 to train youth experiencing homelessness in community-based research and $200,000 to Public Policy Institute of California.

For a complete list of current grants, click here.

California Community Foundation (Los Angeles, CA)

The California Community Foundation launched a partnership with LA4LA, a new public-private partnership to address the housing crisis in Los Angeles and advance innovative solutions. The initiative also received generous support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg Foundation.

LA4LA is taking a multifaceted approach to address key barriers. These include current funding and leasing models that are too burdensome to provide rapid housing, rising financing costs, and access to capital. The initiative will focus on advancing a number of critical efforts including:

  • Rapidly scaling the purchase and master leasing of housing units and bending the cost curve by connecting affordable developers to new flexible rapid financing opportunities;
  • Unlocking rapid financing opportunities for existing developments to ensure completion of projects and secure as affordable; and
  • Identifying critical investment opportunities for new affordable housing developments, including vacant property conversions. Activating entitled but unbuilt housing units, to release thousands of projects to completion more affordably and at scale.

To learn more, click here.

Desert Healthcare District and Foundation (Palm Springs, CA)

Desert Healthcare District and Foundation recently announced eight grants totaling $1,074,113 to reduce loneliness and isolation in California’s Coachella Valley. The grant awards are a part of the District and Foundation’s new Building Connected Communities Initiative, which was launched earlier this year in response to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s report on loneliness and isolation. Each grant covers a two-year period.

The grant awards are:

  • Variety – the Children’s Charity of the Desert ($102,949)
  • Youth Leadership Institute ($100,000)
  • DAP Health ($125,000)
  • Voices for Children ($60,000)
  • The Joslyn Center ($200,000)
  • El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center ($200,000)
  • Visión Y Compromiso ($199,914)
  • Angel View Inc. ($86,250)

To learn more, click here.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust (New York, NY)

The Helmsley Charitable Trust recently awarded $12 million to Billings Clinic in Montana to enhance trauma and complex hospital care. The grants will expand Billings Clinic’s lifesaving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) program, build Montana’s first dedicated Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), and create a new state-of-the-art regional transfer center.

To learn more, click here.

Vitamix Foundation (Cleveland, OH)

Vitamix Corporation and its philanthropic arm, the Vitamix Foundation, were selected to join the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. As part of this initiative, the two organizations have committed $3.4 million in product donations and grant funding over the next seven years to enhance the knowledge, availability, and enjoyment of whole food nutrition for children and families by 2030.

The White House Challenge aims to accelerate investment in, and progress toward, ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases by 2030. The Challenge is consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s strategy to improve access to nourishing food in the United States. Vitamix is among numerous organizations from public, private, and nonprofit sectors supporting the Challenge.

The Vitamix Foundation has already awarded nearly $500,000 in grants:

  • Case Western Reserve University Nourishing Beginnings, a program that partners with organizations utilizing community health workers to provide medically tailored groceries and other resources to pregnant people from underserved communities in Cleveland, Ohio.
  • Children’s National Hospital FLiPRx Produce Prescription Intervention and cooking classes for young families in low-income neighborhoods experiencing food insecurity in Washington, DC.
  • Teaching Kitchen Collaborative for development and implementation of nutrition education competencies and resources for medical trainees and health care professionals.
  • CDC Foundation for the creation of the Hunger, Nutrition & Health Action Collaborative to support collective action by organizations focused on eradicating hunger, improving access to healthy food, and improving the health of communities.

Contact: Hanna Steinker at 440.782.2001 or hsteinker@vitamix.com.

Share this