Summer 2018              
Dear Friends,
 
Welcome to the summer 2018 edition of CCHI E-News. We hope that you're enjoying the season. We're excited to be holding a graduation event this week, and our coalitions are busy planning community activities from now through the end of the summer (details below).
 
We are pleased to announce the formation of a new Community Advisory Board (CAB). Inspired by new community benefit guidelines from the Mass. Attorney General (AG) and the MA Department of Public Health (DPH), the CAB will provide high level oversight to our community health improvement work. The CAB will build upon CCHI's decades-long commitment to partnering with the community on everything we do. It is consistent with our core values.
 
The CAB joins the MGH's Board Committee on Community Health and Executive Committee on Community Health (ECOCH) in overseeing the hospital's partnerships to improve health and infuse community health into the clinical care, research and teaching missions of the hospital. (click here for MGH community health org chart).
 
The CAB will also provide guidance on priorities for community health initiatives stemming from "determination of need" applications to DPH. DPH requires that 5% of the cost of capital projects be invested in community health.
 
We welcome and thank the 17 new members of the CAB, most of whom have long been partners with MGH. We will keep you posted on our progress.
 
Read on for more highlights, and, as always, thank you for your interest in community health at Mass. General.

Best,
     
 
 
 
Joan Quinlan
Vice President, Community Health
CCHI Updates  
First CCHI Bowlathon Huge Success
(l) Team "Heart Rollers" anchored by MGH Board of Trustees Chair, Cathy Minehan (3rd from left); (c) Joan Quinlan (middle) flanked by Carl Martignetti and Patty Ribakoff (members, MGH board committee on community health); and, (r) Mass General President Peter Slavin, MD.

On Tuesday, April 24th, MGH leadership, staff, trustees and CCHI supporters came out for a fun night of bowling for a great cause. More than $300,000 was raised to help fund CCHI programs.  A special thank you to  Kings and  Joe O'Donnell , Board Committee Chair  Patty Ribakoff , as well as our sponsors, for their generous support of the event. Additional photos, video, sponsor list and more here .
MGH Youth Scholars Graduating and Moving on to College
 
It's that time of year, and we are very pleased to announce that our 28 MGH Youth Scholars have graduated from high school, and all 28 are going on to colleges such as Harvard University, Tufts University, Boston College, Northeastern University, UMass and more. 

A graduation celebration is planned for Wednesday, June 27th, under the Bulfinch Tent at MGH. We are very excited that this year Diane Patrick, MGH Trustee, retired Senior Counsel at Ropes & Gray and former First Lady of the Commonwealth, has graciously agreed to be the keynote speaker. 
Annual Report Now Available Online
 
 
The CCHI 2017 Annual Report is now available on our website. Learn more about our core strategies, strategic priorities, new and noteworthy programs and community profiles. Key outcomes from many of our 38 programs are also featured. Download a copy here. Let us know if you have any feedback, and if you would like to receive the printed version, contact Winnie Tobin. 
Coalition Report

The Charlestown Coalition
 
The Charlestown Coalition recently received one of the city's 2018 Love Your Block mini-grants, a program that awards funds to neighborhoods throughout Boston for beautification projects. With this funding, the Coalition, its youth group Turn It Around, and community members have been working hard to restore a neglected park at Mt. Vernon Street Plaza. A newly renovated "Peace Park," dedicated to those who have passed by substance use or violence, will be unveiled at a ceremony on June 26th followed by a peace walk through the community. Read more.  

Healthy Chelsea

 

Healthy Chelsea has just launched a new website!  Visit HealthyChelsea.org to learn more about their work with healthy eating/active living, youth substance use prevention, trauma, early childhood development and community connection.
Revere CARES

In addition to planning several summer events - including three Revere night markets featuring outdoor food trucks - the Revere CARES Coalition has continued its strategic planning process with a renewed vision for the future. Following a series of meetings with residents and community partners, coalition  members have selected two strategies for the coalition to move forward on: Economic Opportunity for Adults and Social Capital.  Stay tuned for important updates as this work progresses.

ECOCH News
The Executive Committee on Community Health (ECOCH) is charged with promoting community health improvement and ensuring health equity, leveraging all four components of the MGH mission: patient care, teaching, research and community health.
ECOCH Symposium Features BUSPH Dean Sandro Galea 

ECOCH members and panelists (l to r): Joan Quinlan, Dean Xerras, Nessa Regan, Katherine Rushfirth, Ana Cabral, Sandro Galea, Gaurdia Banister, Eric Weil, Alexy Arauz Boudreau and Katrina Armstrong
 
ECOCH, along with event sponsors, the MGH Executive Committee on Teaching and Education and the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Nursing, presented Achieving Health Equity: Addressing Social Determinants of Health at Mass General on June 4th. The program featured Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, DrPH, Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, BU School of Public Health, as keynote and was followed by an MGH interprofessional panel discussion.
Funding Opportunity for MGH Clinical Departments

ECOCH has issued a request for proposals seeking to deepen MGH clinical departments' engagement in the hospital's community health mission.  ECOCH will look favorably upon proposals from departments that follow the these guidelines for community health improvement, and in particular to those that have a departmental community champion or are working on forming a committee and developing a community health strategic plan. All proposals must be accompanied by a letter of support from the Chief of Service.
 
Proposals are due on July 31, 2018.  Please direct any questions to Nicte I. Mejia, MD MPH .  Please also feel free to share this notice with anyone who may be eligible and you think might be interested. 

Presentations, Publications and Honors
Charlestown Coalition Director, Sarah Coughlin, was featured in a May 29th New York Times editorial, If addiction is a disease, why is relapsing a crime?
 
Sarah also presented a workshop on June 13th at the Boston College School of Social Work entitled, Advocating for Addicted Clients in the Social Justice System. 
Healthy Chelsea Director, Jennifer Kelly, was selected by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) to become a state Prevention Technical Assistance Consultant for their State Targeted Response (STR) Consortium. This project, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), intends to provide local expertise in our communities to help address the opioid public health crisis
 
The Community Health Worker Collaborative, an initiative co-led by Sarah Oo, Director of Community Health Improvement at MGH Chelsea, was featured in the 2017 Partners Annual Report, Impact.  Read more about the Collaborative and the work being done in Chelsea here. 
 

       
Molly Vespa, Nurse Lead for our Connect to Wellness Program, presented on June13th at the MassHousing Community Services Conference on Housing and Healthcare. The panel discussion centered around housing as a social determinant of health and highlighted the C2W program as an innovative partnership between housing and healthcare providers.