Grant Partners

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.