Photo courtesy of The Community at Sunset Wood/Photo by Nancy L. Ford Photography
In the first quarter of 2021, the Health Foundation awarded grants totaling $915,635 to organizations across western and central New York for projects that are enhancing the overall health and wellness of their communities.
These grants, awarded as of March 10, 2021, are listed in alphabetical order by grantee name.
Buffalo Center for Health Equity ($300,000)
Over the next three years, the Buffalo Center for Health Equity will receive $100,000 annually in order to build a broader understanding and exploration of race-based health disparities in the region, challenging the belief that poor health outcomes are driven by lifestyle choices instead of the social determinants of health. The Center’s focus is on specific zip codes in Buffalo where Black people are dying at three times the rate of their white counterparts as a result of these social and economic conditions.
Since it was founded by the volunteer-driven African-American Health Equity Task Force, the Buffalo Center for Health Equity has proven to be an essential partner in advocating for and mobilizing resources to address health disparities, establishing itself as the go-to resource for information, insight and advisement on matters of health equity for organizations and institutions in the city of Buffalo. This funding will enable the Center to hire a full-time staff member to provide the leadership necessary to operationalize their strategic plan developed in December 2019, and to oversee their growing day-to-day work.
The Community at Sunset Wood – Google Smart Display Program ($10,000)
In partnership with The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties and the Health Foundation, The Community at Sunset Wood will be providing tenants with a Google Nest Hub Max smart display to help address social isolation and improve quality of life during the pandemic and beyond. These devices provide social benefits including video chatting with loved ones or listening to their favorite music to help relax, and also offer aging-in-place support for tasks like setting reminders for medication administration and appointments.
In partnership with The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties and the Health Foundation, The Community at Sunset Wood will be providing tenants with a Google Nest Hub Max smart display to help address social isolation and improve quality of life during the pandemic and beyond. These devices provide social benefits including video chatting with loved ones or listening to their favorite music to help relax, and also offer aging-in-place support for tasks like setting reminders for medication administration and appointments.
Community Service Society of New York – Reaching the Five Percent: Outreach and Enrollment ($250,000)
In 2019, the Health Foundation, in partnership with United Hospital Fund, released Reaching the 5 Percent: A Profile of Western and Central New Yorkers without Health Coverage as part of our ongoing efforts to achieve universal health care for all New Yorkers. The report identified that nearly 60 percent of uninsured New Yorkers are eligible for existing public insurance programs, but are not enrolled due to a number of barriers.
This grant supports Community Service Society of New York (CSS) in the implementation of a three-phase program for applying the lessons learned in the Reaching the Five Percent Report in order to reach the eligible but uninsured in western and central New York. Central to this program is development of a network of Outreach and Enrollment Specialists (OES) and other innovative marketing techniques to locate consumers who are eligible for affordable health insurance coverage and enroll them. This grant will equip existing navigator and facilitated enroller agencies already working in underserved communities with new outreach messages and strategies to close the enrollment gap. This grant from the Health Foundation matches funding of the same amount provided by the Mother Cabrini Foundation in 2020.
CoNECT – ANCHOR ($10,000)
ANCHOR (Assisting Needs and Community Health, Opportunity and Resiliency) emerged as a community rapid response effort to the COVID-19 and systemic racism pandemics; functioning as a bridge between systems, sectors, organizations, grassroots efforts and community members. ANCHOR’s steering committee includes CoNECT (formerly Community Health Worker Network of Buffalo) PUSH Buffalo, Buffalo Urban League, Partnership for the Public Good and Native American Community Services; and has engaged with 80+ frontline, community-based organizations and partners from healthcare, education, housing, human services, foundations, government entities, etc. to date.
Fulton Block Builders – Neighborhood Revitalization Project ($10,000)
Fulton Block Builders provides support to clusters of residents in Fulton, NY, to enable them to design, lead and execute neighborhood revitalization projects. In addition to improving livability in these neighborhoods, this work aims to help address social isolation and empower residents. These projects create the vehicle through which residents build relationships with one another and weave the economic, cultural, civic, and societal fabric of their community. The Health Foundation’s grant will allow Fulton Block Builders to continue expanding this work and participate actively in New York State’s Health & Age Across All Policies Learning Collaborative.
Holy Cross Head Start – Cavity-Free Kids ($2,500)
This grant supports the continuation of the Cavity-Free Kids program. This program is an oral health curriculum developed by the Washington Dental Services Foundation that provides a rich collection of lessons, activities, stories and songs to child care providers to actively engage young children in play-based learning to help them develop good oral health habits.
New York Funders Alliance – WNY Nonprofit Support Group ($108,000)
Formed to assist nonprofits with breaking down barriers to deliver on their missions, the Western New York Nonprofit Support Group is a consortium of western New York funders seeking to strengthen communities by increasing the capacity of the organizations that serve them. With an overall goal of enhancing the health nonprofit ecosystem in the nine-county region covered by WNYNSG, specific goals of this project include:
- Increasing opportunities for cross-sector/cross-geographical organizations to convene, collaborate and learn through structured and unstructured events;
- Building capacity and diversity of intermediaries and consultant/coaching pools;
- Increasing access to individualized organizational supports;
- and embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into all of WNYNSG’s work to expand the group’s knowledge of DEI and its relation to the work of the group and its member foundations.
Other funders of this project include the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, the Western New York Foundation, ESL Charitable Foundation, Peter & Elizabeth Tower Foundation, and the John R. Oishei Foundation.
Population Health Collaborative – Live Well WNY ($13,750)
Since 2018, Live Well WNY has worked to address the needs of the overwhelming majority (approximately 60 percent) of western New York residents who suffer from chronic conditions including obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and lower respiratory disease. In 2021, funding from the Health Foundation, the John R. Oishei Foundation, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of WNY, Independent Health, and Univera Healthcare will help Population Health Collaborative accomplish the following through Live Well WNY:
- Recruiting 15 additional Community Champions and building their capacity in areas such as organizational leadership, advocacy and addressing structural racism.
- Recruiting 300 more Live Well Partner CBOs and providing capacity-building opportunities in areas such as structural racism, using data to drive outcomes and others that are relevant to the Live Well WNY movement.
- Implementing proof of concept projects in targeted communities with robust data tracking and reporting systems, supporting PHC’s ongoing focus on addressing health disparities.
Read to Succeed Buffalo – AARP Experience Corp Buffalo ($150,000)
AARP Experience Corps Buffalo began in 2016 through a funding partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service Social Innovation Fund, the AARP Foundation and local funding provided by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and the John R. Oishei Foundation. Over the next three years, Read to Succeed Buffalo will design and implement a version of Experience Corps to be delivered in pre-kindergarten classrooms for students ages three and four years old. Experience Corps is a volunteer-based tutoring program that helps children who are not reading at grade level to become better readers and more motivated learners.
The mission of Experience Corps is to engage highly trained adults ages 50+ to help children attain literacy proficiency so that children succeed and older adults thrive. The program helps participants improve social connectedness and learn new skills. With this funding from the Health Foundation, Read to Succeed Buffalo will partner with Buffalo Public Schools and Holy Cross Head Start to implement the Experience Corps Preschool Pilot in six classrooms.
United Way of Greater Rochester – WNY Intermediary Collaboration and Nonprofit Support Project ($40,000)
The aim of the Western New York Intermediary Collaboration and Nonprofit Support Project is to expand resources for nonprofit organizations in the nine-county western New York region in the areas of communication, technology, racial equity, and fund development. Led by the United Way of Greater Rochester, nine intermediary organizations that support and strengthen nonprofits have developed a 12-month project to build their capacity through collaboration and resource sharing, while expanding resources to nonprofits.
The project’s core components focus on critical needs identified by nonprofits to survive current circumstances: a Communication Hub to access resources and tools; a racial equity conference; digital learning modules for racial equity work; and customized technology assessments and consulting designed to enhance organizational capacity. Funding for this project is also provided by the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation, the Western New York Foundation, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation and the ESL Charitable Foundation.
University at Buffalo – Health in the Neighborhood ($10,000)
While most medical schools discuss social determinants of health and health disparities among different ethnic and racial groups, for many students this remains an important but abstract concept. Health in the Neighborhood (HITN) is an interactive, experiential first year medical school elective that was initially developed and offered in 2018 to first year students at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Students meet with community members and leaders, visit with neighborhood host families, learn about neighborhood health resources and public health services, and speak with community stakeholders about allocation of funds for public services.
University at Buffalo – Tip Top Flip Flop ($1,385)
Tip Top Flip Flop’s goal is to provide movement art based opportunities for populations historically denied access to the arts with an emphasis on safety, community, trust, self-confidence, body autonomy, and performance art. Tip Top Flip Flop partners with the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and local circus artist groups to provide instructors in various movement based art forms such as partner based acrobatics, object manipulation (hula hoop dance, juggling, spinning plate, poi), and creative dance to students at Buffalo Public Schools.
