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

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announced the Massachusetts Institute for Community Health Leadership (MICHL) 2021-2022 class, a group of 16 diverse professionals who will advance their leadership capabilities and learn new practices and strategies designed to increase their personal impact and strengthen their organizations’ role in building a more equitable health care system.

The experiential program brings together emerging leaders who currently direct or manage programs at a variety of health care organizations across Massachusetts for a series of classroom, peer-to-peer, and professional learning opportunities.

The MICHL participants, selected through an application process, include developing leaders from public health departments, community health centers, behavioral health providers, advocacy groups, hospitals, and academia. The program, started in 2005, features expert faculty with varied backgrounds, and counts more than 180 graduates who have advanced their careers and enhanced their effectiveness as leaders in community health. Since 2014, the program has had a particular focus on structural racism and racial inequities in health care.

The 2021-22 MICHL participants are:

  • Theresa Alphonse, Program Manager, Community Partners & Health Equity, Steward Health Care Network
  • Jasmine Bland, Manager, Massachusetts Health Policy Commission
  • Manuel Gonzalez, Director Payor Programs, Beth Israel Lahey Performance Network
  • Daniela Johnson, Director of Clinical Practice, Vinfen
  • Claudine Joseph, Program Coordinator, Center for Primary Care/Harvard Medical School
  • John Kane, Coordinator of Grants & Strategic Partnerships, Boston Housing Authority
  • Anna Kaplan, Director of Epidemiology & Data Services, Cambridge Health Alliance
  • Erica Marshall, Deputy Director, Division of Health Protection & Promotions, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
  • Daphne Mazuz, Lead Technical Assistance Manager, Centering Healthcare Institute
  • Gina Patterson, Director of Boston Opportunity Systems, Boston Medical Center
  • Angelina Ramirez, Chief Executive Officer, Stavros Center for Independent Living
  • Sarimer Sanchez, Infectious Diseases Bureau Director, Boston Public Health Commission
  • Karen Schoenherr, Associate Director of Training & Organizational Development, Planned Parenthood
  • Gary Sing, Director of Delivery System Investment & Social Services Integration, Office of Payment and Care Delivery Innovation, MassHealth
  • Jaime Tirrell Hassey, Speech Language Pathologist, MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center
  • Ayn Yeagle, Executive Director, Growing Places

For more information about MICHL, click here.

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts (Worcester, MA)

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts recently awarded eight Activation Fund grants to area organizations totaling more than $530,000. These grants will support a wide range of projects throughout Central Massachusetts aimed at improving health, targeting the most vulnerable populations. The grant awards are as follows:

  • Building Futures—for equipment to expand its Terraponics Program, a method of growing organic produce year-round using tiered racks, benefitting Worcester Housing Authority residents and helping to promote healthy eating and address food insecurity. ($59,250)
  • Catholic Charities—for renovations at its Crozier House ¾ Graduate Program which provides housing and support for men with substance use disorders upon completion of residential treatment. ($75,000)
  • Community Health Connections—for buildout of four urgent care rooms at its new Community Health Center that will also offer primary care, dental, and behavioral health services. ($100,000)
  • Girls Inc.—to purchase equipment and furniture to transform a large meeting hall into smaller classrooms to expand program capacity and better accommodate work in small groups, which is more conducive for addressing social-emotional needs of participants. ($41,882)
  • Guild of St. Agnes—for renovation of its child care center, which provides quality, affordable, early education and school-age programs for children from 15 months to 12 years old. ($90,000)
  • Lovin’ Spoonfuls—for purchase of a refrigerated truck to enable expansion of its perishable food rescue and redistribution program into Worcester County, Massachusetts. ($75,000)
  • Mount Wachusett Community College—to upgrade sterilization equipment at its dental education clinic in the Community Health Connections Community Health Center. ($73,903)
  • Viability—to purchase exercise equipment for its accredited Tradewinds Clubhouse, which provides vocational and life skills training and social support for people experiencing mental illness. ($15,350)

Contact: Jennie Blake at 508.438.0009 or jblake@hfcm.org.

Health Foundation for Western and Central New York (Buffalo and Syracuse, NY)

In the third quarter of 2021, the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York awarded grants totaling $674,950 to organizations across western and central New York for projects that are enhancing the overall health and wellness of their communities. These programs include:

  • Buffalo Center for Health Equity—to support the Buffalo Center for Health Equity’s advocacy efforts to ensure health equity goals were advanced in local distribution of American Rescue Plan funds. ($10,000)
  • Grantmakers in Aging—to highlight successful public-private partnerships so that other foundations can learn from and potentially replicate their success. ($10,000)
  • NY Funders Alliance Initiatives Fund—to implement a multi-year work plan to advance several advocacy and system development goals that will result in increased screening of young children for developmental milestones and a system that can better meet identified needs. ($90,000)
  • The Philanthropic Initiative—to fund innovative, collaborative projects that reimagine respite and increase community-based respite opportunities for family caregivers of older adults. ($375,000)
  • Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center – HPV Vaccination in Rural Primary Care Settings—to establish a Rural Health Equity Community Advisory Board that will work with a network of community partners and primary care practices to address vaccine hesitancy in rural communities and test promising cancer prevention interventions in community settings with community-based providers. ($10,000)
  • SUNY Upstate Medical University—to support the prevention of perinatal depression among at-risk pregnant people and new parents with the Thinking Healthy Program. ($169,950)
  • YWCA Jamestown—to support the YMCA’s TEAM (Teenage Education and Motherhood) Program, which provides education, counseling, and services to teen parents and their children. ($10,000)

Contact: Kent Olden at 716.852.3030 or kolden@hfwcny.org.

Impact Alamance (Burlington, NC)

Impact Alamance has invested $650,000 to local nonprofit organizations. Nine community agencies were awarded funds that aim to make the community healthier, smarter, and stronger. The following investments were approved in September 2021:

  • Alamance Burlington School System—to restore the McCray School and to create an outdoor learning environment that replicates the interior furnishing of the building. ($50,000)
  • Alamance Burlington School System—to enhance three elementary school playgrounds. ($150,000)
  • Alamance Community College Foundation—to support the construction of a showcase 33,000 square foot facility, which will house rigorous bioscience and health care programs to meet the needs of these dynamic industries. ($200,000)
  • Alamance County Recreation & Parks Department —to construct a family friendly trail in the Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area. ($50,000)
  • City of Burlington—to install a National Fitness Campaign outdoor fitness court at City Park that will be open and free to the public. ($50,000)
  • Healthy Alamance—to conduct six charrettes in the most marginalized neighborhoods across Alamance County, North Carolina. A charrette is a collaborative planning process used to share and address conflicts regarding the health of the community. ($25,000)
  • NC 100—to purchase laptops to be used for digital literacy classes for residents in Alamance and Rockingham counties in North Carolina. ($25,000)
  • Positive Attitude Youth Center, Inc.—for renovations of the playground area at Positive Attitude Youth Center. ($50,000)
  • Town of Elon Recreation and Parks— to purchase and install Rider’s Playground for Bikes, Trikes, and Scooters at Slade Park in Elon, North Carolina. ($50,000)

Contact: Marcy Green 336.261.8179 or marcy.green@conehealth.com.

Mat-Su Health Foundation (Wasilla, AK)

The Mat-Su Health Foundation (MSHF) announced 17 Healthy Impact and Coronavirus Prevention and Response (CPR) grant awards totaling more than $2 million. CPR grants are unrestricted funding to support local nonprofits as they address unplanned expenses and/or lost revenue relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The six recently awarded CPR grants totaled $232,251 and bring the total awarded under this program so far to more than $1.3 million. Recipients include:

  • Alaska Coalition on Housing and Homelessness—to fund adding a Mat-Su Youth Support Specialist to their team and YAB support. ($85,831)
  • Alaska Farmland Trust—to support ongoing operations. ($242,700)
  • Alaska State Fair, Inc.—to support a livestock barn for youth agriculture activities in the new youth development area at the Rebarchek Agricultural Park. ($50,000)
  • Alzheimer’s Resource of Alaska—to support an evidence-based cognitive wellness program intended to increase mental sharpness and stabilize or slow decline for Mat-Su residents with memory loss or dementia concerns. ($115,000)
  • CCS Early Learning—to fund furniture, fixtures and equipment for a new Head Start facility in the Knik-Fairview Census Designated Place and for paving of its driveway and parking lot. (494,550)
  • The Children’s Place—to support the Gala Havana Ball since this fundraiser had to be altered due to COVID-19. ($2,500)
  • The Foraker Group—to support guiding nonprofits in the Mat-Su and Alaska toward a path of sustainability and $50,000 to support leadership transition. ($35,000)
  • Mat-Su Baseball, Inc.—to upgrade the bathrooms for improved community usage, accessibility, and public health during the pandemic. ($85,000)
  • Onward & Upward, Inc.—to support ongoing operations and to fund technical assistance for a long-term business plan with sustainability projections. ($193,335)
  • Pediatric Resource Center of Alaska—to expand access to applied behavior analysis services in the Mat-Su Valley. ($30,446)
  • Pop Warner Little Scholars Inc.—for part-time staff to focus on COVID-19 training and safety protocols for players and spectators, for scholarships to families who struggled during the pandemic to place their children in outdoor, socially connected activities, and to reimburse for materials purchased to mitigate COVID-19 transmission. ($50,000)
  • REACH 907—to expand organizational services to become a Medicaid-billable children’s mental health clinic. ($245,000)
  • Set Free Alaska, Inc.—to support housing, food, and behavioral health services for up to nine individuals at a time who are in need of quarantine services. ($248,245)
  • Set Free Alaska, Inc.—COVID-19 related operating support and for housing, food and support services for individuals needing to quarantine. ($49,305)
  • United Way of Mat-Su—to support the Early Childhood Partnership which will purchase nutritious snack items in bulk to be distributed as pre-assembled snack sacks to local child care providers. ($50,000)

For information about Mat-Su Health Foundation grant programs, click here.

Contact: Robin Minard at 907.352.2892 or rminard@healthymatsu.org.

The Sozosei Foundation (Princeton, NJ)

The Sozosei Foundation, a philanthropic arm of Otsuka, awarded $4 million in grants to 29 nonprofit organizations working to eliminate the inappropriate use of jails and prisons for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Grantees were selected through a competitive open call for proposals and funding is being deployed to organizations that are working on the four funding priorities that the foundation established at its inaugural Sozosei Global Solution Lab. These four priorities are: the implementation of 9-8-8, increasing the size of the mental health workforce, scaling evidence-based and promising practices to decriminalize mental illness, and education about the Medicaid Reentry Act.

With Sozosei as their inaugural donor, Dr. Cox and Dr. Lauren Kois, Assistant Professor at The University of Alabama, founded the Southern Behavioral Health and Law Initiative, an interdisciplinary collaboration to promote equitable justice, improve outcomes for individuals at risk for involvement in the legal system, and support empirically based policy reform across the state.

Grant recipients include:

  • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
  • Atlanta Fulton Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative
  • Clear Pathways
  • Healthy Brains Global Initiative
  • Inseparable
  • Legal Action Center
  • Lemonada Media
  • Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute
  • Miami Foundation for Mental Health
  • Mindful Philanthropy
  • MindSite News
  • Mural Arts Project
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness
  • National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
  • National Council for Mental Wellbeing
  • OneFifteen Recovery
  • RAND Corporation
  • Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene
  • Richland County Sheriffs Foundation
  • Sound Mind Live
  • The Council of State Governments Justice Center
  • The Kennedy Forum
  • The Path Forward for Mental Health and Substance Abuse
  • The Steinberg Institute
  • The Trevor Project
  • The University of Alabama
  • Tradeoffs
  • University of Chicago Health Lab
  • Urban Health Media Project

Contact: Melissa Beck at 646.265.8878 or melissa.beck@otsuka-us.com.

The Weinberg Foundation (Owings Mills, MD)

The Weinberg Foundation recently approved 17 grants totaling $3.8 million. Grantees include:

  • Compass Family Services—to support its efforts to provide permanent housing, transitional housing, emergency shelter, and child care services for people experiencing homelessness. ($300,000)
  • Chrysalis House—to support the expansion of its campus, which will include additional counseling spaces, medical offices, and a larger child development center. ($450,000)
  • Free State Justice—to support its social services, education, and training programs, with the goal of helping LGBTQ residents access health care, food, housing, and employment. ($100,000)
  • Girdwood Health Clinic—to support the construction of a Federally Qualified Health Center, in partnership with the Rasmuson Foundation, which will include space for behavioral health care, procedures, and X-rays. ($250,000)
  • Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute—to support the Kupuna Food Security Coalition’s work to increase food access for older adults. ($300,000)
  • JPRO Network—to support its efforts to provide professional development, networking opportunities, and other programming for employees at Jewish nonprofits. ($100,000)
  • Latet Humanitarian Aid—to support its home repair program, which provides case management for Holocaust survivors with the goal of helping them age in community. ($300,000)
  • Ma Ka Hana Ka Ike—to support its efforts to address food insecurity, provide job training, and support older adults to age-in-place in their rural community. ($50,000)
  • New Heights Youth—to support the renovation of a facility, which will house this organization’s education, leadership, and basketball programs, as well as office space. ($275,000)
  • North Israel Center for Arts and Technology (NI-CAT) $50,000 program grant—to support technical job-training courses for Haredi and Israeli Arab adults.
  • Parks and People Foundation—to support its efforts to improve the quality of life for communities by providing access to parks and green spaces. ($100,000)
  • Park Heights Renaissance—to support its efforts to provide neighborhood improvements and to increase affordable home ownership and job opportunities. ($250,000)
  • Red Hook Initiative—to support its efforts to provide youth with academic support, job-skills training, internships, and part-time employment. ($150,000)
  • Rising Up Campaign—to support this public-private partnership between the City of San Francisco, nonprofits serving people experiencing homelessness, and other philanthropic partners which is working to reduce youth homelessness by 50 percent by 2023. ($150,000)
  • Sheatufim – The Israel Center for Civil Society—to support the development and implementation of a national, collective impact initiative to address gender-based domestic violence. ($600,000)
  • SHELTER—to support its efforts to provide long-term housing solutions for individuals and families. ($200,000)
  • Women’s Housing Coalition—to support its efforts to break the cycle of homelessness for women and children by providing affordable housing and supportive services with the goal of promoting social and financial independence. ($200,000)

Contact: 410.654.8500

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