Grant Partners

Funding to hire a clinician to develop a program for its volunteer group facilitators about nervous system responses to trauma. The program will include simple strategies for the facilitators to teach clients to use to regulate their nervous system if activated during and after groups or during times of crisis.

Funding to partially support a 10-week, research-based, daily mental health check-in series. The series teaches positive coping strategies and builds cognitive-behavior skills to support youth in pandemic-related healing.

This grant was made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA) promotes a healthy Massachusetts through advocacy, community organizing, and coalition building. MPHA works with community groups, state policy organizations, health care institutions, state agencies, and others to identify community health challenges, design policy solutions, and advocate for action.  It will advocate to improve and invest in our local public health system so that local public health departments can meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.   It will organize to win inclusion of Alliance for Community Health Integration recommendations in the next 1115 waiver and advance a suite of housing and transportation policy reforms, including protections for renters and working-class homeowners, investments in public transit, and stronger accountability for air quality improvements. 

Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee’s (CEOC) multi-faceted approach to health insurance outreach and enrollment services focuses on individuals who have remained uninsured, as well as those who need assistance in maintaining and using coverage. CEOC provides resources to assist individuals to better understand and maintain health insurance that meets their individual needs, reaching them where they receive services, or in a familiar place, such salons, restaurants, and bars. CEOC also assists with SNAP applications during health insurance enrollment, on site, remotely, and at community events, such as shelters, public housing, senior centers, or food pantries.

Funding to purchase office equipment and computers for new staff hired to meet increased demand due to the pandemic.

This grant was made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

GreenRoots bridges the intersection of environmental justice and public health by engaging the most impacted residents in the highly industrial neighborhoods of Chelsea and East Boston, while uplifting their voices and empowering them through innovative campaigns to improve the collective health in its communities. GreenRoots will address health disparities by focusing on food justice, improving indoor and outdoor air quality, and chronic diseases. It will continue to utilize various advocacy tactics on improving the air quality to address health impacts and other health equity policies– including grassroots organizing, data collection, working with policymakers and collaborating with other organizations to move these issues forward.  

This grant funded the development of a survey tool intended to longitudinally track the capacity of the outpatient behavioral health clinical workforce.

To secure the services of a strategic planning consultant to design and implement an effective strategy.

Clinical and Support Options (CSO) will increase its ability to provide an integrated behavioral health system that determines, assigns and begins the right service at the time needed for each person; increase prescriber hours; enhance addiction services; continue to improve the Greenfield Living Room peer support diversion program; and grow partnerships with community organizations, state human services agencies, and police departments.  

To fund food and basic needs while youth access academic supports and connect with its multi-lingual mental health practitioner.

This grant was made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health Law Advocates (HLA) will work to advocate for public policy reforms that help consumers access necessary health care. Key focus areas in the coming year include: continuing to lead the effort to improve access to mental health services for children through the continued expansion of the Mental Health Advocacy Program for Kids, which provides free legal assistance to help low-income, high-risk youth to overcome barriers to mental health services; closing the gap in coverage for in-home health services, such as skilled nursing and non-emergency transportation that harms many immigrants enrolled in MassHealth Family Assistance; and building on the progress made reducing MassHealth’s longstanding difficulty assigning immigrants to the maximum benefits for which they are eligible.  Additionally, HLA will continue to improve access to gender-affirming health care for low-income transgender consumers.

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 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. 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.

Martha’s Vineyard Community Services will help meet a dramatic increase in client requests for emergency assistance for basic needs, such as rent, diapers, supplies, and other health-related social needs.

This grant was made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To provide food delivery for home-bound individuals during the Massachusetts COVID-19 "stay at home" advisory.

This grant was made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volunteers In Medicine Berkshires will assist the BCBSMA Foundation staff in conducting a focus group to understand the needs, concerns, and challenges facing organizations of color and organizations working in communities of color.  The focus group will also help the Foundation identify potential solutions to change the systems, policies, and structures that perpetuate racial inequities in health in Massachusetts.