MGH Community Health Impact Funds

In November of 2024, 20 projects were granted a total of $3 million in Community Health Impact Funding to support community-based Mental and Behavioral Health strategies in Boston and North Suffolk County.

Expanding Community-Based Behavioral Health Initiatives

These projects are focused primarily on Expanding Community-Based Behavioral Health Initiatives:

  • Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC)
    BCNC Family Service
    The BCNC (Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center) Community Wellness Initiative will use a holistic approach to expanding mental and behavioral services for Chinese-speaking immigrants by providing training and education to community members, individualized case management and brief counseling, as well as group therapeutic services.
  • Boston Medical Center
    Community Engagement for Young Individuals with Psychosis in Boston
    Boston Medical Center's Wellness and Recovery after Psychosis (WRAP) program and community partner, the Community Health Education Commission, part of Boston Public Health Commission, will hire two community health workers (CHWs) to work with individuals who are within the first five years of psychosis onset. The CHWs will work to improve access to specialized first episode psychosis care, primarily in the neighborhoods of Hyde Park, Roxbury, and Mattapan where treatment dropout is greatest. The CHWs will serve as a bridge between patients in their community and the WRAP First Episode program. Partnering with CHWs will help to address barriers to treatment that contribute to mental health disparities in the Black community by aiding access to evidence-based interventions and culturally informed psychosis education and information.
  • Children's Advocacy Center of Suffolk County
    Children's Advocacy Center of Suffolk County
    The Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) will grow, enhance, and evaluate the impact of its training and outreach programming to reduce stigma surrounding child abuse and increase access to, and provision of, evidence-based behavioral health interventions for child victims. Training, outreach, and engagement for parents, children, and community members will reduce stigma around child abuse and sequelae (PTSD, depression, etc.), thus increasing willingness to disclose abuse and engage in indicated behavioral health services (including those provided by the CAC).
  • Children's Services of Roxbury
    CSR's Front Porch
    Boston Front Porch aims to de-escalate crises, prevent homelessness and child removal, expand access to mental health care, disrupt the perpetuation of intergenerational racial trauma, and reduce the pervasive stigma surrounding mental illness in the Black community. Front Porch data will be used to increase knowledge and action among family-serving state systems, demonstrating the need to expand the use of Family Partners to address complex trauma, particularly among parents of color.
  • North Suffolk Community Services
    Conociendo la Sobriedad
    North Suffolk Community Services (NSCS)) will expand Conociendo la Sobriedad into an Intensive Group Therapy Program, similar to an Intensive Outpatient model of care, with a minimum frequency of three sessions per week for two hours.This level of service will allow NSCS to better serve Spanish-speaking clients who are struggling with active substance use. The newly expanded program will use a co-facilitator model: a Spanish-speaking clinician will partner with a Spanish-speaking recovery coach who has lived experience in recovery from substance use.
  • Roca Inc.
    Using CBT to Address Trauma in Young Women Who are Sex Trafficking Victims
    Roca will enhance its CBT curriculum and harm reduction programming by incorporating specific modules targeting the underlying factors that drive the trafficking of young women. Roca’s goal is to ensure that the delivery of its curricula and programming succeeds in empowering young women victimized by trafficking to move forward with improved health and life outcomes for themselves and their children.
  • Transformational Prison Project (fiscally sponsored by Tides Foundation)
    Transformational Prison Project
    The Transformational Prison Project will increase and improve its mental health programming for returning citizens, including specialized support for those who were incarcerated as children until adulthood. These services will help individuals remain on a path of healing and build stronger communities.

Innovative Youth Well-Being Interventions

These projects are focused primarily on Innovative Youth Well-Being Interventions:

  • BPE, Inc.
    Educating the Whole Child at Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School
    The grant will fund a City Connects Coordinator at Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School to address critical health inequities affecting Roxbury children. Our whole-child approach to learning recognizes that students' academic success is deeply connected to their physical health, emotional well-being, and access to essential resources. This funding will advance our mission of providing a world-class education for students in Nubian Square.
  • Brookview House
    Roots of Wellness: Teens Empower and Advocate for Community Health (TEACH)
    The goal is to help youth increase their help-seeking behaviors through case management, leadership development, individual and group sessions, workshops, drop-in sessions, antibullying workshops, meditation, expressive arts, and journaling/reflection activities. The "Roots of Wellness: Teens Empower and Advocate for Community Health (TEACH)" initiative is an upstream project to address several critical social determinants of health (SDoH) impacting youth in socio-economically disadvantaged communities. By focusing on the root causes of youth substance use and promoting prevention, the program tackles the underlying factors that contribute to negative health outcomes.
  • Children's Services of Roxbury
    Beats, Rhymes & Life (BRL)
    Beats, Rhymes & Life is delivered by clinicians and teaching artists who look like the young people being served and with shared lived experiences. This project expands access to mental health services among communities of color through culturally congruent supports and a career pathway to introduce and encourage young people of color to enter the behavioral health field.
  • Ellis Early Learning
    Family Support and Engagement Team Expansion
    Funding will increase Ellis Early Learning's (EEL) capacity to provide additional support to children and families, reduce the likelihood of educator burnout, and contribute to better outcomes. Skilled mental health professionals will serve 300+ children and their families across three locations, two in adjacent South End buildings, and one in Jamaica Plain.
  • FamilyAid Boston, Inc. (DBA FamilyAid)
    FamilyAid
    Funds will support the Youth Behavioral Health Navigator, who provides critical support to case managers and others across FamilyAid to navigate and enroll homeless children and youth in behavioral health services and programs. This role is a key component of FamilyAid’s larger organizational strategy to address crises upstream and help more than 5,000 children and parents access the behavioral health resources they need to become and remain stable.
  • Friends of the Children-Boston
    Program Enhancements to Social-Emotional, Mental, and Physical Well-being
    Friends of the Children utilizes a model founded on research that shows that the single most important factor in overcoming childhood adversity and trauma is a long-term, nurturing relationship with a consistent and caring adult. Funds will support the social-emotional, mental, and physical well-being of children and families facing the highest barriers and connecting them to proven partners who create shared values, where they will provide programming, and we support persistence and ensure that it is not a one-off, but that the skills and confidence and health built during the session persist.
  • Hope & Comfort
    Hygiene Secure Schools in Chelsea
    Hope and Comfort will launch the Hygiene Secure Schools initiative at 2 high-need middle schools to meet the full hygiene product needs of students who are defined as “high needs” and will provide 3-4 distributions of hygiene products per school year, impacting approximately 1,000 students annually. Research shows that students who lack consistent access to hygiene products are at greater risk for missing school due to health emergencies, and frequently face stigma and bullying which impacts their mental health and overall attendance and engagement in school.
  • Neighborhood Villages, Inc.
    A Model for the Coordinated Provision of Early Relational Health Supports
    Neighborhood Villages will design, implement, and evaluate a new model for the coordinated provision of behavioral and mental health supports in Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs. It will pilot its own multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) across a network of 5 Boston-based ECE programs in high-poverty neighborhoods (known as the Neighborhood).
  • Playworks New England
    Supporting Youth Mental Health through the Junior Coach Leadership Summit
    Funds will support the new Junior Coach Leadership Summit as part of the Leadership Program planned for spring of 2025. It addresses behavioral and emotional challenges early on by leveraging the power of play and social-emotional learning (SEL) for long-term positive outcomes.
  • The Home for Little Wanderers
    Activity Groups in Boston Public Schools Boston, Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop
    Funds will support "The Home's" school-based clinicians working in the Boston Public Schools. The project addresses three social determinants of health: access to appropriate behavioral health services, opportunities to participate in physical activities; and a quality educational experience at 8-10 Boston Schools. The project also addresses the “gaps” that exist in the context of the current mental health crisis. (i) Lower income families have limited access to adequate mental health services due in part to the limited supply of providers serving underprivileged communities; and (ii) lower income families cannot afford extra-curricular activities such as dance, sports, arts, etc., which have been shown to reduce anxiety, depression and isolation, and increase self-esteem.
  • Trinity Boston Connects
    Trinity at Ruth Batson: Whole-School Trauma-inclusive Restorative Justice Practice
    The program will promote positive health outcomes by fostering positive relationships between youth and adults through Restorative Justice practices and addresses SDoH factors like community and social context, educational disparity, and food insecurity. The project will also shift the school’s disciplinary processes away from overly punitive approaches that correlate with poor future outcomes for students of color.
  • Walker Therapeutic and Educational Programs (Walker)
    Wellness Coach Project: Girls Initiative
    Walker launched the Wellness Coach Project (WCP) in 2023 to establish entry-level Wellness Coach roles for young adults aged 18-30 with the goals of meeting the rise in mental health issues among youth and young adults, especially in underserved communities. Funds will create the Wellness Coach Project (WCP) Girls Initiative, a component within the WCP focusing on the specialized needs of girls such as digital wellness, body image, and relationships. The WCP Girls Initiative proposes an upstream approach by integrating preventive wellness and mental health support into existing settings at schools and youth-focused community organizations.
  • West End House
    West End House Innovative Trauma-informed practices
    Funds will support the integrated trauma-informed practices in all youth programming to promote resilience among youth and to identify and address increased mental health needs.