MMS and Alliance Charitable Foundation: 2004-2005 Grants

Community Action Grants

• Homelessness Prevention Initiative - $50,000 - Year Two
  $50,000 to focus on the mental health-related needs of one specific target population: mothers and their children who are at risk of becoming homeless. In collaboration with The Boston Foundation and Tufts Health Plan $1 million was awarded to eighteen agencies with programs targeting those in need of direct assistance and stabilization; discharge planning and placement for those being released from care and custody; supportive housing services; mental health support; and substance abuse counseling. The Initiative will bring together organizations providing a diverse range of programs to share best practices and recommendations, with a goal of advancing knowledge of what works in the area of prevention, providing outcome data and proven models on how to prevent homelessness.
• Boston Area Rape Crisis Center - $25,000 to provide crisis counseling and education to rape survivors and their families in 27 cities and towns in metro and greater Boston
• Community Health Center of Franklin County - $7,500 to expand the health center's outreach and medical service to underserved populations at risk of becoming homeless
• Food Bank of Western Mass- $15,000 for its Operation Frontline Program, which provides cooking and nutrition education for at risk, low-income populations in Western Massachusetts
• Jessie's House - $9,000 to provide clinical consultation to Hampshire County families entering the shelter system
• Katie Brown Educational Program - $20,000 to expand dating violence recognition and prevention programs to students in Southeastern Massachusetts
• Rape Crisis Center of Greater Lowell - $15,000 to support the Prevention Education Department, including the Child Assault Prevention Project and Teen Awareness Program
• South End Community Health Center - $30,000 to support its Win-Win Initiative to prevent obesity in high-risk pediatric patients and those identified to be at risk for childhood obesity
• The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship - $25,000 to support the Boston Schweitzer Fellows Program, one of seven such programs in the U.S. The Fellows Program supports students in medicine and other health professions who are engaged in community service projects that promote health and improve access to health care for underserved populations.

Care for the Medically Underserved

• Bridge over Troubled Waters - $15,000 to provide medical and dental care to runaways and homeless youth in greater Boston through the Bridge Healthcare Program
• Duffy Health Center- $22,500 to provide access to primary health care for low-income, medically underserved working adults on Cape Cod
• VIM Berkshires - $30,000 for a certified medical interpreter and to provide community outreach to the uninsured residents of the southern Berkshire region
  
  Women of Means - $20,000 to expand services to provide free care to homeless women and their children at the Women's Lunch Place and Sandra's Place in Waltham

International Health Studies

• Amber Cay Lambert - a fourth-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine, who provided basic health care to the children living on the streets in LaPaz, Bolivia.
• Urmen Upadhyay- a fourth-year medical student at Tufts University School of Medicine, who worked with Rotoplast International to provide free surgical reconstructive procedures to more than 150 children in Chengdu, China.
• Gloria E. Oramasionwu, M.D. - a second-year pediatric resident at Boston Medical Center, who provided pediatric care at a hospital in rural southeastern Nigeria.
• Kedar Mate - a fourth-year medical student at Harvard Medical School, who will work with the World Health Organization's Tsunami Technical Group in New Delhi, India. Kedar will assist in gathering and disseminating information from assessment missions in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, India, and the Maldives on the impact of the tsunami on health care facilities and distribution channels for critical medical supplies.
• Christopher Dodd - a fourth-year medical student at Boston University School of Medicine, who is providing primary care and training community health workers in Tipitapa, Nicaragua.