Boston, MA – As a part of their effort to bolster access to equitable healthcare and confront systemic barriers to care, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has announced the 2024 awards of the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds (the Funds).
With these awards, DPH, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) and the implementing partner Health Resources in Action, Inc., will join with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition and 26 other organizations across Massachusetts, as well as over 40 of their community partners. These funds aim to disrupt barriers to health, increase awareness and address the impact of structural racism on health, and to create long-term, meaningful changes in health outcomes.
“As the pandemic proved so clearly, immigrants and refugees across Massachusetts lack fair and adequate access to safe, reliable healthcare,” said Elizabeth Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition. “The Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds will aid us in striving to address these unjust inequities, supporting immigrants and refugees across the Commonwealth. We thank the Department of Public Health, Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) and Health Resources in Action, Inc. for providing these funds, and we look forward to getting to work.”
The Funds invest in three core areas:
- Crafting long-lasting, community-driven policy, systems, and environmental changes to make it easier to lead healthy lives and reduce health inequities such as racial patterns of segregation in communities and a lack of affordable housing production;
- Organizing and coordinating Community Health Improvement Planning efforts which convene multi-sector partnerships to collectively set and address community health goals, and;
- Supporting policies and systems that increase opportunities for healthy aging.
The Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds were created in January 2017 when DPH completed a landmark revision of its Determination of Need (DoN) regulation, which authorized the creation of these Funds. DPH provides overall guidance to the Funds and Health Resources in Action, Inc. acts as a fiduciary and implementing partner. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) partners with DPH to support the Healthy Aging Fund.
More information about the Funds can be found at https://mahealthfunds.org/.