Somerville Health Foundation 2021 Grants Awarded
SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- On Wednesday, October 14, community leaders and Cambridge Health Alliance administrators gathered for a virtual reception to honor the recipients of the 2021 cycle of the Somerville Health Foundation (SHF) grant program. Organizations that received funding include: Beautiful Stuff Project (Neighborhood Children’s Foundation), Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS), Forsyth Kids, Neighborhood Counseling and Community Services, Project Soup, RESPOND and YouthStream (Mystic Learning Center).
Funded initiatives will focus efforts upon: providing dental health services, increasing outreach to individuals experiencing domestic violence, increasing diversity of -- and access to -- mental health supports and services, stress reduction and emotional health support for children, social support building through the arts and digital media for youth, a community support program for immigrant parents and an expansion of service provision within a local food pantry.
The SHF was established in 1996, as part of the Affiliation Agreement executed between Somerville Hospital and Cambridge Hospital when they merged to form Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA). Under the terms of the agreement, Somerville Hospital incorporated a new nonprofit corporation known as the Somerville Health Foundation, Inc. with trustees from CHA and the City of Somerville. Somerville resident Margaret Hutchinson left the endowment that has funded the Foundation.
The current priorities for funding support are programs with an emphasis on the root causes of disease, health inequities and providing resources to historically vulnerable populations in Somerville. Projects were selected based on the following criteria:
- Protective factors to reduce substance use disorder and/or decrease violence;
- Mental and emotional health promotion and/or stress prevention;
- Physical activity and food/nutrition programming, infrastructure and/or policy work related to obesity prevention and reduction of diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease;
- Chronic disease prevention and disability prevention, based on Somerville health outcomes indicating respiratory disease (asthma and COPD), digestive diseases, cancer, living with a disability, and dental health factors impacting the health of residents;
- Impacts of COVID-19, health access/health literacy, vaccine access.
For more information about the program, contact Renee Cammarata Hamilton at 781-338-0505 or rcammaratahamilton@challiance.org. If you would like to learn more about the health status and conditions in Somerville, you may access the Wellbeing of Somerville Report 2017 or the most recent Somerville Community Data Profile.