Brigham and Women’s Hospital will invest $4 million in neighborhood organizations
Brigham and Women’s Hospital will invest $4.45 million over the next seven years in community-led health efforts in five Boston neighborhoods. The hospital said Thursday it has awarded $649,000 to 14 local organizations in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Mission Hill, and Roxbury. The individual grants range from $20,000 to $100,000 per year for three years. The organizations receiving the funding through the hospital’s Center for Community Health and Health Equity provide services ranging from helping incarcerated young mothers prepare for release to fitness classes and nutrition education. The hospital said the grants are just the start of its seven-year investment in the neighborhoods. The hospital said it wanted to focus on three areas with the funding: community psychological wellness and well-being, employment and job skill development, and health inequity issues with a “racial equity lens.”All Dorchester Sports League, Sociedad Latina, and United South End Settlements were among the organizations selected to receive the hospital’s support. The funding will support the sports league’s kitchen program, Sociedad Latina’s work with young people from the Latino communities in Mission Hill and Roxbury, and the South End group’s wellness work with low-income seniors. “Eighty percent of what makes us healthy can be attributed to factors outside of the health care system, such as whether we live in a safe neighborhood, have access to high-quality education or have access to healthy, affordable foods,” Wanda McClain, vice president of Community Health and Health Equity, said in a statement. “These 14 organizations are working closely with their communities to address the social factors that contribute to poor health outcomes.”
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