The
Massachusetts Medical Society & Alliance Charitable Foundation has awarded
grants to health-focused organizations across the state.
The awards,
totaling $265,000 and benefitting 20 organizations in 2018, bring the total
amount of grants made by the foundation to nearly $4 million since 2000.
Wellesley-based Health
Care Without Walls received $20,000 to create a
replicable and sustainable model of low-barrier access, community-based urgent
and episodic care to support chronic disease management and prevent emergency
room and hospital admissions among aging, homeless women. This is the foundation’s
sixth grant to the organization, bringing the total to $100,000.
The MetroWest
Free Medical Program was granted $10,000 in support
of its efforts to enhance volunteer recruitment and expand capacity to meet the
growing need for care by the uninsured and underinsured. The foundation has
supported MWFP with nine grants and $136,000 since 2000.
Framingham’s South Middlesex Opportunity
Council received $10,000 that will be
earmarked toward educating homeless families in nutrition, healthy meal
planning and safe food preparation in an effort to meet the overall goals of
improving health, recovery, employability and housing.
The foundation has given $20,000 to the
Amherst
Survival Center’s health program. Funding will
be directed toward supplementing a free clinic provided by medical volunteers
and staff, the Health Needs Fund, which helps pay for medications and tests and
HungeRX, outreach to local physicians to support food security screenings and
referrals to food pantries. This is the sixth grant the Foundation has made to
ASC, bringing the total award to $105,000 since 2011.
“We offer our gratitude for the continued
support of the Massachusetts Medical Society and Alliance Charitable Foundation
of our free walk‐in health clinic and the ways it helps us meet our mission to
connect residents of Hampshire and Franklin Counties with health and wellness,”
Amherst Survival Center Executive Director Mindy Domb said.
The
foundation’s presence will be felt in Brockton as three organizations – the
Brockton Champion Program, the MainSpring Outreach Project and Health
Imperatives’ HIV Prevention Project – will share $40,000.
The Brockton Champion Program, a community collaboration among
city, police, courts, health and treatment providers to provide immediate
access to drug treatment in an effort to reduce the city’s opioid overdose and
death rates and promote engagement with long-term recovery, will receive
$10,000.
Father Bill’s & MainSpring will receive $15,000 for its
MainSpring Outreach Project which aims to create access to health care and
improve health outcomes for homeless men and women who are currently living
outdoors.
“Massachusetts
Medical Society and Alliance Charitable Foundation’s longstanding support of
Father Bill’s & MainSpring has been instrumental in making health services
accessible to the most vulnerable people in our community,” Father Bill’s &
MainSpring President and CEO John Yazwinski said. “We are proud to partner with
an organization that targets their resources to proactively provide care for
high utilizers of emergency systems, such as those who are homeless and living
outside. Through their generous funding, Massachusetts Medical Society and
Alliance Charitable Foundation is helping to provide cost effective healthcare
solutions and produce better outcomes for individuals experiencing homelessness
and in desperate need of care.”
The
foundation will grant $15,000 to the HIV Prevention Project that will enable Health Imperatives to increase access to HIV prevention services among high-risk
populations in Southeastern Massachusetts through improved clinical outreach
and community engagement efforts.
Additional
grant recipients include REACH Beyond Domestic Violence (Waltham), Seamark Vision Clinic at the Cotting School (Lexington), the
Sharewood Project (Malden), New Directions Counselling Center at
Interfaith Social Services (Quincy), The Women’s Opioid Prevention Program at Roxbury’s Whittier
Street Health Center,
and Boston nonprofits The Women’s Health Initiative at Boston
Health Care for the Homeless, Hearth, Charles River Community Health, Peer Health Exchange, Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center, the Crimson
Care Collaborative,
the Family Van and StudentsCare.
The Massachusetts Medical
Society & Alliance Foundation is a supporting organization of the
Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide association of physicians, and the
MMS Alliance, the organization of physicians'
spouses, physicians, medical students, partners, and friends committed to
advancing the health and well-being of the family of medicine. The
foundation’s mission is to support the charitable and educational activities of
the Society and Alliance and address issues affecting the health, benefit, and
welfare of the community.
