MGH Community Health Impact Funds

In November of 2024, 15 projects were granted a total of $3 million in Community Health Impact Funding to support Economic Mobility and Financial Stability initiatives in Boston and North Suffolk County.

Innovative Workforce Development

These projects are focused primarily on Innovative Workforce Development strategies:

  • BPE, Inc.
    Supporting Roxbury Youth in Achieving College Success
    This grant will support Dearborn STEM Academy's Early College program and Dearborn Next, our post-graduate support initiative. Through Early College, students can earn an associate degree alongside their high school diploma. Dearborn Next extends support to alumni until age 24, connecting them with critical resources as they navigate college and career, as we work to ensure that all students are in a wealth-building career six years after they graduate.
  • Community Servings, Inc.
    Community Servings Teaching Kitchen Program
    The core objective of the Teaching Kitchen Program is to address unemployment and underemployment for populations with barriers to employment. With over eight overlapping 12-week sessions annually, consisting of 360 program hours per session, the program offers a clear pathway to secure permanent positions within the food service industry by equipping trainees with the skills needed for stable, well-paying jobs in Boston’s thriving culinary industry.
  • Digital Ready
    STEM Learn + Earn Pathways
    Project Digital Ready’s STEMHub houses collaborative and connected high quality “learn + earn” STEM pathways that foster career exploration and immersive learning in safe, supportive environments, where young people can reach their full potential. Each of the 5 Learn + Earn STEM pathways is designed to ensure that each participant emerges with “currency” to be used towards obtaining a first job in greater Boston’s innovation economy--architecture + design, engineering tech, biotech, computer science and green tech for ages 16-25.
  • For Kids Only Afterschool Inc. (FKO)
    Out-of-School Time Registered Apprenticeship
    The Out-of-School Time (OST) Registered Apprenticeship will connect low- and moderate-income workers from marginalized communities to full-time, stable positions with livable wages and benefits, professional development, and on-the-job learning. OST apprentices will develop essential workforce skills and build the capacity to deliver high-quality educational enrichment for children and working families.
  • Friends of the Rafael Hernández School, Inc.
    Primeras Maestras Program
    This program trains low-income Spanish speaking, under- or unemployed adults to become dual language educators. Primeras Maestras offers participants the opportunity to gain employment as paraprofessionals, assistant teachers, after school staff, preschool teachers, in schools and in other educational settings.
  • G{Code}
    Building tech skills and careers through G{Code}
    The two-pronged approach to education involves providing free technical training and career development opportunities in a nurturing learning environment. The program bridges gaps in traditional education systems by offering curricula tailored to meet the specific needs of underrepresented communities, ensuring that participants receive relevant and applicable skills and competencies for the modern workforce with one-on-one mentorship and career counseling.
  • More Than Words
    More Than Words Job Training
    This project will support employment and long-term stability for youth, ages 16-24, who are in the foster care system, court-involved, homeless, or out of school with a job development and life skills program. The project includes 36,000 hours of paid job training annually for 150+ youth, deep supportive services, and career services for another 125+ youth who already completed their intensive job training period.

Training on Wealth Building and Workforce Development

These projects are focused primarily on Training on Wealth Building and Workforce Development strategies:

  • African Community Economic Development of New England
    Building Wealth in Immigrant Families through Small Business Development
    This project aims to address critical gaps faced by immigrant and BIPOC entrepreneurs in Boston which include: limited access to capital; lack of business training; and systemic inequities that limit their economic opportunities and exacerbate disparities in wealth and income. Approach includes: deep community roots; cultural and linguistic competence; comprehensive support services; and strong partnerships.
  • Boston Main Streets Foundation
    Boston Main Streets Foundation
    A technology Initiative with the purpose of democratizing access to technology for small businesses and helping to close the digital divide. This program provides free point-of-sale systems, eCommerce functionality, and premium hardware paired with one-on-one mentoring.
  • Dorchester Bay Neighborhood Loan Fund
    Dorchester Bay Microlending to Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs
    The FlexFund aims to foster economic growth and resilience by designing loan products that respond to the challenges of Boston’s most critically underbanked BIPOC-owned and –led micro-enterprises. The loans will be supplemented with comprehensive technical assistance from the application process through re-payment with low interest rates and terms tailored to the businesses and industries that are vital to our low-to-moderate income communities.
  • Hispanic American Institute
    FERTIL Initiative - Closing the Racial Wealth Gap
    This project provides aspiring Latino entrepreneurs the capacity and resources to build resilient and successful businesses in gateway cities across the state. A key service provided is one-on-one counseling with business owners to discuss their aspirations and goals for the business; issues and challenges facing the business; the financial status of the company; and, near-term objectives.
  • Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation
    Small Business Wealth Initiative
    Funding will expand a 27-year-old program serving BIPOC small businesses to encompass new support for wealth building and a targeted strategy to promote and measure the impact of successful small business ownership on the intergenerational assets of the business owner’s family. It will extend the continuum of services to ensure meaningful, long-term impacts on families.
  • La Colaborativa
    La Colaborativa
    A trauma informed approach to promote economic stability and unlock opportunities for living wage jobs, healthcare benefits, financial literacy, and housing stability. Employing La Colaborativa’s Triage Model, the approach seeks to increase household income and wellbeing, with participants attaining living wage jobs with healthcare benefits, and provide financial stability to secure housing stability and childcare.
  • Project HOPE
    Workforce/Economic Mobility
    This project aims to increase the number of childcare providers leading to additional children receiving quality childcare. Participants will develop professional skills to enhance their sense of self, provide a living wage and alleviate stress, and children will be connected early to the requirements of a state licensed program, benefit from developmentally appropriate activities, relationships, and screenings for developmental needs with appropriate referrals for early intervention services. The Family Partner model identifies supports that will help families avoid instability.
  • United Way Massachusetts Bay
    Family Childcare Licensing in BHA Communities with Family Self-Sufficiency
    The project focuses on two critical components: promoting economic mobility through entrepreneurship and providing quality, affordable, culturally appropriate early education programming. It empowers Family Child Care (FCC) educator-entrepreneurs for sustainable business growth, including comprehensive professional development and capacity building initiatives aimed at wealth creation, such as retirement planning, tax preparation, and optimizing business structures.