Grant Partners

Community Action of the Franklin, Hampshire, and North Quabbin Regions will conduct outreach through four community coalitions, food pantries, and career centers.  They will screen all callers for health insurance needs and send reminders about member responsibilities to submit documentation and update information.  At enrollment meetings, Community Action will provide materials to help members stay organized and follow-up to see if they have a PCP, can access their Connector account, and have responded to any mailings. 

To purchase a laptop computer and cart accessories for physician use. 

To purchase and implement a photo ID system for volunteers.

Vinfen has developed Community-Based Health Homes (CBHH) for individuals with serious mental illness to integrate their primary care and behavioral health and address the disparities experienced by the population.  The CBHH model achieves close collaboration approaching an integrated practice by embedding Nurse Practitioners (NPs), Nurses (RNs) and Health Outreach Workers (HOWs) into existing community-based rehabilitation and recovery behavioral health teams, bringing primary care services directly to individuals with serious mental illness in their communities since 2012.  Over the past three years, Vinfen has been actively evaluating and piloting health technologies in an effort to integrate behavioral and primary health care for its population.  The Foundation-supported expansion program embeds two HOWs and the use of a smartphone app specifically designed to support the population into a dispersed, community-based outreach team.  A dedicated Program Coordinator will manage the program, collect data and evaluate impact.

To purchase six computer systems.

 To replace nine computers in the Computer Lab at the Boston Living Center.

South Middlesex Opportunity Council (SMOC) provides housing and supportive services to disadvantaged, homeless, single adults in three regions of the state:  MetroWest/Framingham, Central Mass/Worcester, and the Merrimack Valley/Lowell.  SMOC will evaluate the impact of its Housing First program that recognizes an immediate and primary focus on helping clients access and sustain permanent housing, to test the hypothesis that stable housing leads to improved health outcomes, and ultimately, a reduction in health costs.  Three hundred clients will be placed into housing and evaluated as part of this project.  SMOC will identify those clients with the highest service needs at entry into shelter, and then follow them into and throughout their housing placement in order to measure their health outcomes at various points along the continuum of homelessness and housing.

To purchase and install client management software program.

Dukes County will participate in community outreach events, and use paid and unpaid advertising and social media to promote affordable insurance information. They will develop a folder with handouts for appointments, and adapt a checklist for account set-up, enrollment and payment information, primary care provider selection, and making appointments. It will also set up reminder systems for clients with pending action steps. 

To purchase new computers and printers.

Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands (CACCI) will conduct outreach activities and assist individuals with applications or redeterminations.  They will use informational flyers and educational presentations to health and human service providers, businesses that cater to immigrants, and career centers.  They will notify those on subsidized insurance of impending deadlines, importance of responding to reviews, and develop an internal system to notify known households of necessary action steps. Finally, it will provide a comprehensive overview of health plan selection process based on health care needs and budgets, and use of a plan once enrolled.

To produce a public awareness campaign video highlighting the organization’s mission and availability of domestic violence resources. 

To purchase five new Dell computers that will be used for training employees on the health center’s new EHR system.

The Health Starts at Home Initiative supports four partnerships that bring together housing and health care organizations to support work that demonstrates the positive effects of stable, affordable housing to children's health outcomes, identify promising new and existing models for collaboration that can be brought to scale, decrease health care costs, and decrease costs related to homelessness.  Families eligible for participation have children under the age of 12, and are experiencing housing instability.  The evaluation partners for Health Starts at Home, Health Resources in Action and the Urban Institute, are conducting both outcome and process evaluations to measure whether and how improved housing stability affects the health of children, as well as to document successes and challenges, and develop best practices for creating these types of health care and housing partnerships. 

To create a video highlighting the hospital and its programs.