Recent Awards

African Community Economic Development of New England (ACEDONE) will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Agencia ALPHA will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Recovery from Stress and Trauma through Outpatient Services, Research, and Education Center at Boston Medical Center will pilot a behavioral health support program, the Race-Based Stress/Trauma and Empowerment group (RBSTE). RBSTE utilizes education about racism and wellness and teaches mindfulness and behavioral skills to bolster resistance to race-based stress. The program will be culturally adapted and piloted in faith organizations.

Brazilian Women’s Group will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

The Maternal Wellness Support Program intends to “Pave a Path to Wellness'' for expecting mothers and mothers within the first year of birth. The Cape and Islands Maternal Depression Task Force (CIMDTF) will address the critical need for nonclinical emotional support for new mothers while building the capacity to create a sustainable, evidence-based peer network of trained moms. The project expands upon (1) training expecting parents on the realities and possibilities of new motherhood; (2) training parents to be peer mentors to new and expecting parents; and (3) supporting new parents after birth with free home visiting by a doula.

Central Massachusetts Agency on Aging will provide coordinated behavioral health services to older adults of color and their families by linking them to clinicians of the same race and ethnicity, focusing on families in which grandparents are raising grandchildren.

Centro Presente will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Community Servings will 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 will provide medically tailored food boxes, a cookbook with simple recipes, cooking demonstration videos, nutrition education, and support from a registered dietitian nutritionist.

East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC) will develop and pilot a culturally adapted health education and nutrition intervention program to improve rates of controlled blood pressure for economically marginalized Latinos with hypertension in East Boston. The pilot will help EBNHC assess the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach and identify ways to improve the program, such as adapting the program to a virtual format.

Ellie Fund will increase access to clinical trials for high-risk cancer patients, who have low-income, and are people of color who would not otherwise have access to cutting-edge treatments. EF is partnering with leading researchers and oncologists to change the landscape of clinical trials, by addressing patient-facing barriers and ensuring they do not exclude low-income communities and people of color. EF will evaluate the success of these measures in increasing participation among patients of color and the ability of patients to adhere to and complete treatment because of EF services.

FamilyAid will pilot a Behavioral Health Navigator program focusing on cutting through the red tape and gaining access to behavioral health services for FamilyAid children. This pilot will occur through a partnership with Boston Children's Hospital to expand access to behavioral health services to 400 children in the coming year. It will hire a Behavioral Health Navigator to build on established relationships and forge new collaborations with counseling services, school-based behavioral health staff, community health centers, and hospitals.

Fathers’ UpLift (FUL) has developed an affiliate model of its evidence-based intervention, which it hopes to use to expand its impact and capacity. FUL will recruit private clinical therapists and locally oriented mental health/wellness nonprofits to implement FUL's evidence-based interventions, along with a comprehensive measurement and evaluation tool it developed in coordination with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 2021. FUL's goal with this programming is to productively align with, guide, and equip clinicians, mental health, and wellness-oriented nonprofits to serve black and brown men, particularly fathers.

Girls Inc. of the Valley will advance health and health equity by creating a new mental health program that provides low-barrier, no-cost mental health services to low-income BIPOC youth who participate in Girls Inc. programs. They can reach youth in a trusted setting by embedding new mental health services into their programs.

Immigrant Family Services Institute, Inc. will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Immigrants' Assistance Center will work with unaccompanied and undocumented youth in elementary and middle school and their families and/or guardians to increase access to health care and regular health check-ups, including vaccinations. It will educate children and their families and/or guardians about the best ways to meet their health needs. It will also educate them about, the importance of preventive care and the dangers of not addressing health issues promptly.

International Institute of New England will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

The Baker Center for Children and Families (BCCF) and the Morning Star Baptist Church (MSBC) will co-create a community-based, community-leader-led support program called Caregiver Conversations. The pilot program will help address the lack of access to effective mental health care for children and their caregivers living in Boston's Roxbury, Mattapan, and Dorchester neighborhoods.

Lawyers for Civil Rights will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Luminosity Behavioral Health Services will develop an improved 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 will 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.  The new program will 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.

Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP) will partner with community leaders from the Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese communities in Massachusetts to better understand factors related to Asian patients reporting lower patient experience scores compared to other populations. MHPQ will develop a report and propose recommendations to improve Asian subpopulation patient care experiences. Recommendations will include ways to improve access to quality care or mitigate/eliminate healthcare disparities.

MLCHC submitted this proposal on behalf of the Health Equity Compact. The Health Equity Compact is a group of Black and Latinx healthcare leaders with lived experience who seek to dismantle systemic barriers to equitable health outcomes by transforming care delivery and influencing health policy.

The Health Equity Compact will conduct 20-24 stakeholder interviews with leaders from state and municipal agencies, health care provider organizations, health insurers, employers, unions, and advocacy groups. These interviews will support the Compact to better understand these different stakeholders' current health equity-related interests and priorities, work, and desires for change at the state level. The interviews will also assess the reactions of these stakeholders to the policy proposals currently being formulated by the Compact. The Compact will then develop a report on stakeholder perspectives on the health equity policy proposals identified by the Health Equity Compact.

Neighborhood Villages (NV) seeks to build a multi-layered, centrally coordinated behavioral health support model to meet the acute behavioral health needs in early childhood education settings. NV will pilot and evaluate the onsite delivery of early childhood mental health services, beginning with placing an Early Childhood Mental Health consultant in early childhood classrooms at the East Boston Social Centers.

Northeast Arc and other partner organizations will provide telehealth services and expertise to increase health care access and improve outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The telehealth provider, StationMD, will address health care symptoms early to reduce emergency room visits and divert patients from hospitals and primary care practices that are currently overburdened.

Prisoners’ Legal Services will 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. 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.

The Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts (PHIWM) will plan and assess the Massachusetts State Behavioral Health Roadmap through an equity lens for Hampden County. This project will involve engaging diverse stakeholders: families, youth, care providers, health care staff, and leadership. The findings will inform local, regional and statewide action through potential organizational policies and practices, state regulations, and legislation.

Resilient Sisterhood Project will create an evidenced-based protocol for health practitioners and community-based advocates to address the broad spectrum of reproductive health needs of formerly incarcerated Black women. This protocol will guide health care practitioners, community organizations, and formerly incarcerated women to ensure that women can access the reproductive medical services they need and mitigate the trauma of prison medical treatment.

Rian Immigrant Center will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Saheli will develop and deliver a cultural competency training program for frontline hospital providers and staff to help them understand the unique cultural characteristics and motivations of South Asian and Arab immigrants, specifically, women, to identify signs of abuse within a cultural context. Saheli will work with hospital partners focusing on the domestic violence units and the staff and providers of the gynecology, primary care, pediatric and maternity units.  

Transhealth Northampton (TN) will develop a pilot program to examine the effectiveness of a consulting model for gender-affirming care. This program will expand access by educating and supporting providers.  Under this model, the provider can reach out to Transhealth for a provider-to-provider consultation to ask specific questions about patient care.  In addition to individual consultations, Transhealth will create training and educational toolkits to expand the project’s reach and reach out to local primary care offices, medical groups, community health centers, and other local organizations to educate them about the program and invite them to participate.

True Alliance Center will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

This project has been developed by two Associate professors at UMASS Amherst and will be implemented in collaboration with the Ascentria Care Alliance, based in West Springfield.

This project will implement an evidence-based intervention to reduce stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms and improve coping skills, self-efficacy, social support, and family well-being among Ukrainian and Afghan refugees resettled in Hampden County. Reducing their mental health burden by promoting community strengths and utilizing culturally tailored support will help these refugees to adjust to their new environment and actively engage in the community and employment.

This project is a collaboration between UMass Amherst Elaine Marieb College of Nursing (EMCON) and the Bay Area Neighborhood Council (BANC) in Springfield. 

The two organizations will work together to address racial disparities in maternal health by launching health education services and bringing resources to pregnant people and new mothers in the Bay neighborhood in Springfield. The project will build BANC’s capacity to sustain the maternal health program in their community.

Vital CxNs (VC) will address the factors that impact health outcomes (e.g., food access, exercise, stress management, housing, etc.) related to elevated rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) by working with BIPOC communities to redesign diabetes and CVD prevention for their communities. VC will strengthen communication between communities, key stakeholders, and clinical partners to develop a roadmap that will center communities' voices and needs in prevention efforts related to CVD and diabetes.

Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires will meet with individuals and families to help determine their health needs and connect them with resources and services that meet those needs. Its population of focus will be immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in communities across the Commonwealth. It will also coordinate closely with other community-based organizations and local and state agencies to ensure that its services are additive and not duplicative. 

Walker, Inc, will 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.  Walker, Inc. will research the issue, outline a sustainable funding model, and prepare to launch a pilot preschool program.

We Are Better Together Warren Daniel Hairston Project will provide comprehensive emotional and mental health services in a leadership development framework designed specifically for women who are the relatives and caregivers of perpetrators of community violence. This program will help support these women to contend with the realities of their grief and anger while providing support to their relatives - who are victims or incarcerated or about to re-enter society.

Worcester RISE Health Clinic will provide cross-cultural and trauma-informed training for behavioral health services and staff of community-based organizations with the specific lens of how to better serve new migrant arrivals to area service providers. Specifically, Worcester RISE will develop a model for mental health training of frontline workers to scale up the local capacity to build a network of trauma-informed and culturally sensitive behavioral health providers in Worcester to increase access to culturally sensitive services.

YWCA Malden will support Malden High School students to understand their mental health needs and provide them with tools to access appropriate mental health services. The Quest for Life program will also help students to engage with the outside environment to create meaningful experiences or “quests” for themselves and the wider student community.