Grant Partners

Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center (EMK) operates a well-established multi-lingual, multi-cultural team that provides health insurance outreach and enrollment assistance for patients and clients. It serves as a primary point of contact in the health care community for refugees and the immigrant population, ensuring that these populations have access to coverage, can navigate the health care system, and can access care when they need it. EMK also identifies other benefits for which patients and clients may qualify--like SNAP or the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) --and conduct warm referrals to internal supports. During the grant year, it will maintain a robust in-person outreach calendar, as pandemic restrictions allow, and virtually engage new community members, increasing awareness of EMK's health insurance enrollment services.

Resilient Sisterhood Project 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.

Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires (VIM) will articulate, evaluate, and promote its comprehensive healthcare approach to serve as a model in increasing access to quality care and eliminating structural racism and racial inequity in health for economically, socially, ethnically, and racially marginalized residents of the Commonwealth.  VIM believes that many elements of its care model help increase access and eliminate racism, and the Special Initiative grant will help the organization test this assumption.

Funding to conduct focus groups to better understand vaccine acceptance and non-acceptance in the African communities of Worcester.

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

The Welcome Project builds the collective power of immigrants to participate in and shape community decisions through programming for youth and adults that develops leadership skills, builds civic engagement, and strengthens immigrant voices.  It will work to develop partnerships with other immigrant and health organizations to advance efforts for equitable working conditions for immigrant workers and to ensure their health and safety to improve community health. 

Funding to hire a consultant to provide tools and expertise to expand federal housing eligibility counseling capabilities and maximize operations. This enhancement will increase its capacity to meet emergency housing and foreclosure needs for Latinx people with economic hardships that have been intensified by the pandemic.

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

The Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR) educates the public about the value of addiction recovery. The organization’s central concerns are to reduce: the social stigma of addiction; the shortage of timely treatment to promote recovery and reduce overdose risk; the lack of long-term treatment; and the disproportionate effects of addiction on populations such as veterans, pregnant women, non-English speakers, communities of color, and recently incarcerated people. MOAR will advocate for low threshold (non-abstinence) housing and for improved substance use disorder (SUD) treatment access via deaf-friendly mobile and outpatient services. MOAR will also convene information and strategy meetings with Black, Indigenous, and people of color populations to inform advocacy and policy priorities and educate policymakers about fidelity to peer principles, which is integral to the revised recovery coach licensure proposal. 

Brockton Neighborhood Health Center (BNHC) works to expand its reach to assist patients and members of the community with insurance outreach and enrollment supports. It partners with local organizations and area faith-based organizations to expand its reach to assist patients and members of the community. BNHC provides education on health insurance enrollment for immigrants, refugees, and people of color in places they gather, and reassures patients from immigrant populations who consider dropping coverage or avoiding medical care due fear of immigration, or confusion over re-enrollment changes post-COVID. BNHC will work to notify patients and clients that are due for renewal, even before policies and deadlines are re-instituted after the state of pandemic emergency is lifted, to ensure continuous coverage. During the grant year, it will also provide education, eligibility information, and application assistance for SNAP through the enrollment process or through referrals to Community Health Workers as health insurance enrollment volume increases.

Funding to hire a consultant to aid in the reopening of women's health and adult programs for in-person visits, which had been suspended due to COVID-19. The consultant will implement an electronic medical record system within the organization for easier scheduling and to better accommodate telehealth visits.

Brookview House is a Black and Latinx women-led community-based agency working for justice, equity, and systemic change for low-income families. Through a two-generation, culturally responsive approach, Brookview provides housing with on-site programs to improve health, educational achievement, and economic stability. Brookview will develop and implement a grassroots community engagement campaign that identifies the intersection of substance use and oral health and the impact on young people – including a social media component. They will also work to increase the health advocacy skills and build grassroots power of the Brookview Youth Advisory Board.   

This grant funded the development of an issue brief summarizing the key components of Chapter 102 that will affect health and health care in Massachusetts.

Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) promotes health justice and ending health disparities for people with disabilities.  DPC will work with people of color-led organizations for more equitable distribution of health resources and better data collection on marginalized communities.  DPC will advocate for regulatory overhaul focused on changing MassHealth policies around absorbency products and wheelchair repair.  In addition, it will continue its work with the Dignity Alliance Massachusetts to fight for fundamental long-term care reform, from banning double-occupancy rooms to diverting significant funding to home-based care.

Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education’s (SPACE) initiative will build resilience among Somali-American families and increase their understanding of the public health and health delivery system. SPACE will host workshops and conversations, training, and hands-on experiential learning about health, wellbeing, physical fitness, nutrition, preventive health care, and natural environmental physical supports.  These events will create a foundation to deepen culturally appropriate comprehension and advance new behaviors related to living a healthy lifestyle.

Boston Medical Center will enhance the Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST) model to improve the delivery of high-quality, culturally competent care to individuals with mental health conditions, substance use disorders (SUD), and co-occurring disorders. It seeks to strengthen the rapid assessment and treatment of individuals while providing referrals and access to appropriate services in the least restrictive environment, promoting safety and recovery, and providing medical support and triage to divert people from the emergency department and inpatient psychiatric units.

Funding to address racial equity in vaccine access through outreach and education in Brockton’s Cape Verdean, Ecuadoran, Haitian, Honduran, and Mexican communities.

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