Register for the event here: | |
Meet-the-Donors:
Central Massachusetts
Philanthropy Massachusetts is hosting a
Meet-the-Donors event featuring Central Massachusetts funders. Foundation President & CEO Dr. Amie Shei will serve as a panelist, and attendees will have the opportunity to network and ask questions.
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Community Health Connections Opens South Gardner Community Health & Urgent Care Center | |
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Community Health Connections (CHC), a nonprofit, federally qualified health center serving North Central Massachusetts, hosted a ribbon-cutting event on June 12 to celebrate the grand opening of its South Gardner Community Health & Urgent Care Center at 529 Timpany Boulevard. Dr. Amie Shei, President & CEO, and Jennie Blake, Senior Program Officer, attended the event representing the Foundation.
The new 20,000 square foot facility will operate in addition to the organization’s existing location on Connors Street in Gardner. Including this site, CHC now has five full-service health centers in the cities of Gardner, Fitchburg and Leominster offering a range of services that vary by location, including Primary Care and Family Medicine, Behavioral Health, Dental, Laboratory, Optometry, Pediatrics, Podiatry, Substance Use Disorder, and Urgent Care.
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(L-R) Jennie Blake, THFCM Senior Program Officer; Jacqueline (Jackie) Buckley, former CHC Chief Operating Officer; John A. DeMalia, CHC President & CEO; and Dr. Amie Shei, THFCM President & CEO (Photo credit: CHC) | |
A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the opening of the new South Gardner site at 529 Timpany Boulevard. (Photo credit: CHC) | |
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Unique to both the new South Gardner location and the Leominster site is the integration of a Walk-In Urgent Care Center, which enables CHC to address critical needs that cannot wait for an appointment with a primary care provider and relieve stress on local Emergency Rooms (ERs). In 2021, the Foundation awarded CHC an Activation Fund grant of $100,000 to equip four of six urgent care rooms in the South Gardner facility, recognizing the need for affordable acute care in the community in light of the high cost of ER visits.
“The community’s support that CHC has been shown as we built this facility has been tremendous and in a variety of forms, and we could not have opened this new site without it,” said John A. DeMalia, President & CEO of CHC. He added, “Our urgent care service is a wonderful addition to our broad array of services, and we have The Health Foundation of Central MA to thank for the build out of most of it through a grant from the Activation Fund.”
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Recovery Center of H.O.P.E. Receives BSAS Funding | |
The Recovery Center of H.O.P.E. (Healing Ourselves with Peers Everywhere), a program of the Western Massachusetts Training Consortium (The Consortium), is a peer-led recovery center based in Ware serving residents in 18 rural towns in the Quaboag Hills region. The Quaboag Hills Substance Use Alliance (QHSUA) partnered with The Consortium to open the Center in 2019 to help address the opioid crisis in the region. The pandemic further exacerbated rural barriers to treatment and recovery, and the Town of Ware saw a 233% increase in fatal overdoses from 2020-2021. | |
The map above depicts the Quaboag Hills region, which includes 15 towns at the margins of three Massachusetts Counties – Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester. | |
In 2022, The Consortium received an Activation Fund grant from the Foundation to expand capacity of the Center by relocating to a larger, more centrally located space in downtown Ware. This grant positioned them to apply for Department of Public Health Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) funding to sustain operations long-term, and the Recovery Center for H.O.P.E. was among 13 new peer recovery support centers recently selected for BSAS funding in FY 2024. The Foundation joins The Consortium staff and QHSUA stakeholders in celebrating this accomplishment! | |
Health Equity Trends Summit | |
(L-R) David Seltz, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission; Lauren Peters, Executive Director of the Center for Health Information and Analysis; Matt Veno, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission; Audrey Gasteier, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Connector; and Dr. Shei (Photo credit: Health Equity Compact) | |
On June 13, Dr. Shei moderated the Driving Change at Scale: Health Equity in State Government panel discussion at the Health Equity Compact's Health Equity Trends Summit. The event featured influential leaders from government, health, business, and other diverse sectors discussing how to advance health equity statewide. | |
Joint Committee on Public Health Hearing | |
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Dr. Shei testified on June 21 in front of the Joint Committee on Public Health in support of an important PFAS omnibus bill that would "turn off the tap of PFAS," an important step to stem the flow of these "forever chemicals" which have been found in drinking water sources including private wells.
The Foundation continues to support the Private Well Program to Protect Public Health, a Round 5 Synergy Initiative project led by RCAP Solutions, as it continues its advocacy efforts to ensure that all Massachusetts residents have access to safe drinking water regardless of where they live.
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Dr. Shei testifying on June 21 | |
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WooSox Celebrate
"Tooth" Day
On Tuesday, July 25, the Worcester Red Sox celebrated "Tooth Day" to highlight the importance of oral health and to recognize key advocates who have worked tirelessly to expand access to oral health services across Massachusetts. Though the game was rained out, the pre-game activities still reached a large audience.
Longtime oral health champion and former Senate President Harriette Chandler attended the event, and her video message described how she and fellow advocates worked year by year and tooth by tooth to improve oral health.
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Two of the Foundation’s first Synergy Initiative projects invested nearly $6 million to improve access to oral health care for underserved residents, and the projects’ successes have been sustained to this day. The Foundation is pleased that our partners in that early work, including former Senate President Chandler, the Oral Health Caucus, and Health Care For All, were recognized for their impact on oral health. | |
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By The Numbers - 2023 Demographic Survey
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The Foundation recently completed its 2023 demographic survey of the Foundation's leadership, staff, and advisors.
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MassHealth Redetermination | |
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On March 22, the Foundation hosted a health equity breakfast in Worcester which featured representatives from Health Law Advocates and Health Care For All speaking about how their organizations are responding.
In September 2022, the Foundation awarded HLA with a $100,000 grant for its Special Initiative to Protect MassHealth Coverage Post-Public Health Emergency, in anticipation of the MassHealth redetermination process even before the start date was announced. In recent months, the HLA team has been hard at work assisting clients with eligibility issues related to redetermination, resolving medical debt, and obtaining coverage for covered medical services. In addition, HLA’s advocacy efforts have informed MassHealth’s improvements to the redetermination process.
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The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts is dedicated to improving the health of those who live or work in Central Massachusetts, with particular emphasis on vulnerable populations and unmet needs. Through its unique and impactful approach to grantmaking, the Foundation supports community-identified health issues, with health defined broadly to include social determinants of health and with a focus on promoting health equity. As a health conversion foundation launched in 1999 following the sale of the non-for-profit HMO Central Massachusetts Health Care, Inc., the Foundation’s grants have totaled over $53 million to more than 200 unique organizations over its history. For more information, visit www.hfcm.org. | | |
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If you are interested in supporting this work, The Health Foundation Fund, Inc. is the 501(c)(3) fundraising affiliate that supports the purpose and mission of the Foundation through donations, memorial contributions and gifts of life insurance. Thank you for your consideration. | |
© 2023 The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts | | | | |
