Moses Taylor Foundation (Scranton, PA)
Moses Taylor Foundation has approved grants awarding a total of $658,318.80 to eight organizations that advance the foundation’s strategic priority of promoting health and wellness throughout Northeast Pennsylvania. The list of 2016-2017 first quarter grants includes Advocacy Alliance ($139,575 over three years), American Heart Association ($75,000 over two years), Children’s Advocacy Center of Northeastern Pennsylvania ($130,348.80 over two years), Salvation Army East Stroudsburg Corps ($5,000), Scranton Area Foundation($76,575), Telespond Senior Services ($18,816), Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA ($125,000 over three years), and Women’s Resource Center ($88,004).
Contact: LaTida Smith
Phone: 570.207.3731
Email: LSmith@MosesTaylorFoundation.org
Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation (Newton, MA)
A new $10 million initiative, funded by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, will help shape the future of pediatric mental health care by delivering accessible, high-quality services to Massachusetts’ most vulnerable children, right in their pediatricians’ offices. TEAM UP for Children (Transforming and Expanding Access to Mental Health in Urban Pediatrics) is designed to introduce, evaluate, and sustain access to effective mental health treatment by embedding that care within trusted primary care settings.
TEAM UP for Children will help address the need for integration between primary and behavioral health care for children by awarding grants over a four-year period to three highly regarded community health centers in the Greater Boston area: The Dimock Center in Roxbury, Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, and Lowell Community Health Center, serving a combined 20,000 children. Boston Medical Center (BMC) will lead the implementation of the project and provide clinical consultation, training for the health centers, and care for the most acutely ill patients.
The initiative will support increased access to mental health care by expanding the ability of community health centers to prevent, identify, and treat mild to moderate mental illnesses and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Through this effort, the community health centers will expand existing primary care teams to include nine behavioral health providers and eight pediatric community health workers across the three health centers. Equally important, 60 members of the health centers’ clinical teams will receive enhanced training in mental health diagnosis, management, and support. All pediatric patients will have access to behavioral health care and be screened as a result of the program.
A comprehensive evaluation assessing implementation strategies, child and family outcomes, and costs is a key component of this initiative. In recognition of the significant potential of TEAM UP for Children to improve pediatric care, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded $500,000 to BMC. This grant will supplement evaluation funding provided by the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation to evaluate how pediatric health settings can transform systems to focus on prevention and family health. RWJF will promote TEAM UP for Children findings nationally.
Contact: Nicoleta Jordan
Phone: 617.391.9667
Email: njordan@rasky.com
The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation (Columbus, OH)
The Osteopathic Heritage Foundation has approved a $2 million lead gift to Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio, to support the CHOICES for Victims of Domestic Violence campaign to construct a new shelter in Franklin County.
Phone: 614.737.4370
Email: heritage@ohf-ohio.org
Maine Health Access Foundation (Augusta)
The Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) has awarded $344,000 to 12 organizations from around the state to provide people with the help they need to enroll in health plans offered through Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace. These 12 statewide and community-based nonprofits will provide free, local enrollment assistance in communities all across Maine during the Marketplace open enrollment period from November 1, 2016 through January 31, 2017.
For the last three years, MeHAF has also led the statewide www.enroll207.com campaign to promote awareness about the affordable health insurance options available on Maine’s Marketplace, which is offered through the federal Healthcare.gov website. The statewide www.enroll207.com campaign paired with coordinated enrollment assistance resulted in more than 84,000 Mainers enrolling or re-enrolling in health plans in 2016. Tens of thousands of people in Maine have worked with enrollment experts in their local communities to find plans that work best for their families and their budgets.
Local enrollment assisters can be found in locations all over the state of Maine, including hospitals, health centers, and local Community Action Programs. Mainers can find free assistance in their communities using the zip code locator tool at https://www.enroll207.com/locator/. Business owners and employers can also find Marketplace-certified insurance brokers to help with their insurance needs using the locator tool.
Contact: Morgan Hynd
Phone: 207.620.8266 x116
Email: mhynd@mehaf.org
Blue Shield of California Foundation (San Francisco)
Blue Shield of California Foundation announced $8.9 million in grants to improve the quality of health care and domestic violence services for the most vulnerable Californians. A key focus of the third-quarter funding is to improve patient-provider relationships and communication, ensuring cultural responsiveness and strengthening team-based care to ensure success in a value-based care system.
The foundation is continuing its previous $1.5 million investment in multiple local “electronic consultation” (eConsult) projects across the state to better provide access to specialists for low-income patients. Additional grants will help spread the adoption of eConsult, with the ultimate aim of reducing wait times for specialty care, eliminating unnecessary appointments, and improving patient follow-up.
A complete list of third quarter awards can be found here. These grants are the latest in the foundation’s total commitment of more than $365 million in philanthropic giving since 2002.
Contact: Christine Maulhardt
Phone: 415.229.6145
Email: Christine.Maulhardt@Blueshieldcafoundation.org
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation (Detroit)
In collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation solicited proposals from Michigan-based safety net organizations to improve the overall wellness and health status of people with mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders. The intent is to develop new and/or sustainable programs that provide access to integrated programs that meet the needs of underserved populations in Michigan. Six projects were awarded totaling $535,000. Among the grantees are Mackinac Straits Health System (St. Ignance, MI), InterCare Community Health Network (Bangor, MI), Baldwin Family Health Center (White Cloud, MI), Munson Healthcare Charlevoix Hospital Foundation(Boyne City, MI), Covenant Community Care (Detroit, MI), and Catherine’s Health Center and Health Intervention Services (Grand Rapids, MI).
Contact: Nora Maloy
Phone: 313.225.8205
Email: nmaloy@bcbsm.com
Jewish Healthcare Foundation (Pittsburgh, PA)
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF) Board of Trustees approved a $100,000 grant to implement a regional Stop the Bleed initiative, a community outreach, training, and action program that empowers the general public with the first responder skills and equipment necessary to stop or slow life-threatening bleeding.
JHF will support a regional planning effort and provide resources (including bleeding control kits and training) to the local Jewish community and the foundation’s HIV/AIDS service partners.
Emergency medical technicians, nurses, and other medical providers will disseminate information on Stop the Bleed and conduct train-the-trainer sessions on how to use the bleeding control kits. The kits will primarily be placed in the same highly-populated locations as automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The kits will include standard tourniquets, hemostatic dressings, and a just-in-time training card to help civilians provide effective aid.
This local initiative builds on the national Stop the Bleed campaign, which was launched by the Obama Administration in the fall of 2015. JHF’s support of Stop the Bleed furthers the foundation’s 15-year commitment to improving the region’s emergency preparedness and pre-hospital care.
Contact: David Golebiewski
Phone: 412.594.2553
Email: Golebiewski@jhf.org