Grant Partners

Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, which serves a community with a high rate of uninsurance, will provide screening, education, enrollment, and post-enrollment services for patients and community residents, including information on how to maintain insurance coverage. It will also attend community events and partner with the Immigrant Assistance Center to inform individuals about the insurance application process and to answer questions about public charge. Through 2021, specific grant plans may be adjusted to meet the current health and safety guidelines to protect the wellbeing of clients, patients, and staff.

Caring Health Center, which serves a community with a high rate of uninsurance, will provide culturally competent insurance enrollment assistance and education to patients, including insurance eligibility, applications, enrollment, policies, subsidies and tax credits, plan selection, and assistance in maintaining coverage. Caring Health Center will increase health insurance literacy through culturally and linguistically appropriate one-on-one, group education, and community outreach, including to programs serving jobseekers, unemployed persons, students, and community members who need support outside of the health center. It will also implement extensive media and grassroots community outreach campaigns.

Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) will organize transgender people with disabilities in Massachusetts and outreach to people of color who are deaf or hard of hearing regarding racial bias within their service community. Additionally, DPC will continue to advocate for changes to the state building codes to increase accessibility for people with disabilities accessing various locations, particularly in relation to housing access.   DPC's key focus is to continue to advocate for nursing home policies: overhaul infection control standards, end double-occupancy rooms, and develop new tools to help people transition back to the community. DPC will continue its involvement with the Disability Advocates Advancing our Healthcare Rights Coalition, focusing on social determinants of health.

Ecu-Health Care will support clients in accessing and maintaining health insurance coverage through one-on-one education and outreach in partnership with local community organizations.  It will also participate in a variety of outreach activities to build awareness of its services and to provide coverage information to consumers. It will disseminate information about coverage through social media, flyers, and brochures throughout the community, and will proactively outreach to uninsured Berkshire Medical Center patients to provide insurance enrollment support. Through 2021, specific grant plans may be adjusted to meet the current health and safety guidelines to protect the wellbeing of clients and staff.

Family Health Center of Worcester will focus insurance outreach and enrollment efforts towards refugee, immigrant, and asylee populations through targeted clinics and community events with an emphasis on dispelling misinformation, myths, and fears related to public charge. It will proactively outreach to patients who are newly uninsured as a result of a change in life circumstances and will hold new patient education sessions monthly in languages other than English. Family Health Center of Worcester will also conduct ongoing reviews of information collected from Health Insurance Literacy surveys and provide group learning opportunities for its navigators to identify and address themes and content for staff training.