Grant Partners

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. 

Health Law Advocates (HLA) advocates for public policy reforms that help consumers access necessary health care and provides legal expertise with grassroots organizing and policy reform to advance healthcare access.  HLA will advocate to reduce barriers preventing immigrants from accessing health care. It will focus on improving health insurance coverage for immigrants and reducing the medical debt incurred by immigrants. HLA will help immigrants access health care through three interrelated activities: policy advocacy, legal assistance for immigrants, and training programs for providers. Additionally, HLA will continue its longstanding advocacy for better access to mental health care for youth. HLA lawyers will advocate with policymakers across our health care, human services, education, and judicial systems to remove barriers to mental health care for children. 

Boston Health Care for the Homeless (BHCHP) is one of the leading health care organizations providing health care to homeless individuals and families in the greater Boston area. People experiencing homelessness (PEH) are among the most vulnerable and unwell members of our community, which has been underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic. BHCHP’s sophisticated knowledge of homelessness and the health care system allows them to assist clients with enrollment, retention, and navigation of publicly subsidized health insurance programs. During the grant year, BHCP will expand access to enrollment and retention assistance for patients by embedding services on-site at various locations and integrated to new services like BHCHP’s expanded dental clinic and BHCHP’s family clinic within Horizons for Homeless Children, which serves families from various neighborhoods and shelters.

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.

Funding to provide resources to service members, veterans and their families to assist in purchasing food and groceries.

Funding for a new “Food Security for the City of Worcester” website. The website will centralize city food resources – including information about food pantries, farmers markets, summer school meal locations, SNAP information, and more.

Funding for six leadership staff, peers and volunteers to attend the International Harm Reduction Coalition to enhance their skills and training.

This grant funded outreach to individuals who have experienced gaps in insurance coverage due to barriers identified through our policy and research work.  This outreach supported the inclusion of a qualitative component to a policy and research project, elevating the lived experience of members of our community in our work.

Mass Senior Action Council (MSAC) is a member-led organization and is the only organization in Massachusetts that informs, engages, and empowers low-income seniors from diverse communities to have direct input in shaping the Commonwealth's health policy decisions. MSAC will advocate to expand access to affordable healthcare for lower-income Medicare beneficiaries by: raising state income eligibility of the Medicare Savings Programs from 165% to 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL); and updating the MassHealth asset limit to exclude life insurance policies. In addition, it will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders to better understand the oversight of Long-Term Care and to identify opportunities for increased protections for residents of nursing facilities. MSAC will also continue to advocate for a fully integrated intake and eligibility process for state health, food, and other means-tested benefits. MSAC is also continuing its efforts to have all 6 Senior Care Options programs include Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other benefit enrollment during their intake and re-certification processes. 

La Colaborativa is a trusted partner to Latinx immigrants in Chelsea and surrounding areas with a mission to empower community members to enhance the social and economic health of the community and its people; and to hold institutional decisionmakers accountable to the community. La Colaborativa will build on its distinct, culturally relevant, community-based approach to promote community health and advocate for systems change. La Colaborativa will continue to expand its health advocacy work to improve health equity and expand coverage and access – specifically for immigrants, regardless of documentation status. 

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. 

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.

Fishing Partnership (FP) reaches important areas that continue to experience high uninsurance rates and a largely independent worker population that often lacks access to critical services.

Using their experience with enrollment and outreach, the FP will launch an outreach campaign in New Bedford, Fall River, Lynn, Quincy, Plymouth, Gloucester, and Cape Cod to reach the fishing community and their families –with a focus on women, people of color, non-English speakers, and individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorders - with materials and sharing information through presentations and events about health coverage.

Quincy Asian Resources, Inc’s (QARI) mission is to foster and improve the social, cultural, economic, and civic lives of immigrants and their families in order to benefit their communities. QARI will provide the Life Balance program (the organization’s PM+ intervention program); increase staff members' knowledge, comfort, and confidence in discussing mental health and delivering Life Balance to members of the community and hold events to educate community members about the availability of the program.

Funding for new computer equipment to expand organizational capacity and infrastructure.