In a time when Michigan communities are in great need of extra health support, we’re proud to announce 70 new Community Health Impact awards, supporting health-focused organizations all over the state. The projects are varied—covering many of our eight focus areas—but they share the common element up building up community health from within. This year, we awarded 18 grants in the area of capacity building, bolstering organizations’ efforts to increase the sustainability and effectiveness of their work.
With the current health crisis heightening the needs of Michiganders, we hope that these projects—including those involving food access, support for older adults, and mental health treatment—will provide critical help during unstable times.
Healthier communities make for a healthier Michigan
While some of the selected initiatives are looking to make a statewide impact, most organizations will be working within their own regions of Michigan, whether that be a dense urban hub or more sparse rural counties. Nearly all of them serve the Health Fund’s target populations of children and older adults.
“This program is about supporting the health of Michigan communities, collaborating around improved access to services, and building organizational capacities,” said Megan Murphy, senior program officer. “We can’t wait to see how these organizations help move their communities toward more sustainable health outcomes.”
In one notable Kalamazoo County project, the Health Fund is joining a collaborative of funders to support an Autism Alliance of Michigan pilot that will expand care for children with autism who have experienced psychiatric crises. Another grant will help the Detroit Area Agency on Aging and Southeastern Michigan food access organizations coordinate and integrate food delivery services for older adults, during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
In total, we’re awarding $4,547,473 to 52 traditional Community Health Impact projects. They are listed by focus area at the bottom of this post.
Strengthening nonprofit capacity
Project sustainability is one of our top priorities, which is why we always ask our applicants what they will do to make sure that their work can continue once our funding stops. However, we recognize that there are sometimes organizational barriers that can make that difficult. That’s why we added a capacity building section to this year’s awards—covering one-time internal expenses that will benefit the effectiveness and sustainability of the organizations’ work, such as enhancements in evaluation, technology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“If we want to see the health of our state improve, we need to do our part to ensure the organizations working on those issues are able to reach their full potential,” Megan said.
For these grants, we prioritized health-focused organizations with operating budgets under $5 million, ultimately selecting 18 organizations to share $809,008 in funding. Those awards are listed at the very bottom of the list below.
2020 Community Health Impact Grants
COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPACT PROJECTS
Allen Neighborhood Center
Access to Healthy Food for Refugees | Lansing | $36,125
Alpena Area Senior Citizens Council, Inc.
Alpena Empowered Movement Program | Alpena County | $100,000
American Cancer Society – NCR
FoodFit of Macomb County | Macomb County | $81,620
Arbor Circle
Keep Early Education Positive (KEEP) | Kent County | $99,048
Arbor Circle
Medically Fragile Foster Care – Analysis and Planning | Southwest Michigan | $62,677
Autism Alliance of Michigan
Addressing Psychiatric Boarding of ASD Patients in EDs | Kalamazoo County | $100,000
Bethany Housing Ministries, Inc d.b.a Community Encompass
Muskegon Prescribes Food For Health | Muskegon County | $100,000
Bronson Health Foundation
Bronson CenteringPregnancy | Kalamazoo County | $31,750
Calvin University
Addressing Stigma: Lay Ambassadors for Mental Health | Grand Rapids | $99,950
Chaldean Community Foundation
The Fun & Fit Health Program | Macomb and Oakland Counties | $90,425
Child & Family Services of Northwestern Michigan
Reducing Barriers to Mental Health Care for Foster Children and Families | Northwest Michigan | $100,000
Child and Family Charities
Mid-Michigan Trauma Collaborative | Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham Counties | $50,000
City of Dearborn
Dearborn PIPERS | Dearborn | $95,990
Covenant Community Care, Inc.
Shared Mobility for Patients in Northwest Detroit | Detroit | $70,180
Detroit Area Agency on Aging
Coordinated Food Delivery Systems | Detroit | $100,000
Detroit Educational Television Foundation
PBS Healthy Kids: Preschool Partnership Initiative | Wayne and Monroe Counties | $90,000
District Health Department #10
Live Well For Your Heart | Missaukee and Wexford Counties | $100,000
Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program
Seeded at the Table | Detroit | $85,000
Eastern Michigan University
The SOCIAL Partnership | Wayne and Washtenaw Counties | $100,000
Grand Rapids African American Health Institute
Closer to Care | Kent County | $89,420
Greater Detroit Area Health Council
I Choose Health Expansion Project | Macomb County | $99,764
Health Department of Northwest Michigan
Integrating School Mindfulness Education District-Wide | Emmet County School Districts | $100,000
Heart of West Michigan United Way
Birth Equity Through Doulas of Color | Kent County | $100,000
Henry Ford Health System
Building a Base of Evidence for Fresh Prescription | Detroit | $100,000
Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County
Video Based eVolunteering | Washtenaw County | $100,000
Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Debweyendan (“believe in it”) Indigenous Gardens (DIGs) | Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon Counties | $100,000
Kids Kicking Cancer
Trauma in Transition | Southeast Michigan | $100,000
Lutheran Child and Family Services of Michigan Inc., D.B.A. Wellspring Lutheran Services
Wellspring Recovery High School | Southeast Michigan | $100,000
Lutheran Homes of Michigan, D.B.A. Wellspring Lutheran Services
Geriatric Substance Abuse Recovery Program (WSARP) | Wayne, Oakland, and Washtenaw Counties | $100,000
Michigan Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance
Increasing Treatment Options for Child Victims | Statewide | $81,116
Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health
Michigan Model for Health Website Update | Statewide | $64,920
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Transportation Resources to Medicaid Beneficiaries | Statewide | $100,000
Michigan Public Health Institute
Birth Detroit Easy Access Clinic | Northwest Detroit | $100,000
Michigan State University
College Students as Family Caregivers | Ingham and Washtenaw Counties | $99,921
MidMichigan Health Foundation
Go Thrive! | Ogemaw, Gladwin, Iosco, Roscommon, Arenac, Oscoda, and Clare Counties | $100,000
Our Kitchen Table
Educate to Elevate | Grand Rapids | $24,050
Pediatric Foundation of Michigan
Adolescent Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Program | Kent, Washtenaw, Oakland, Genesee, Livingston and Ingham counties | $89,143
Personalized Nursing LIGHT House
Extended Care Post discharge from Addiction Treatment | Wayne and Oakland Counties | $83,886
Porter Hills Foundation
Dementia Training to Reduce Caregiver Stress and Burnout | Holland and Muskegon | $100,000
Project Healthy Community
Fresh Prescriptions | Northwest Detroit | $94,400
Spectrum Health Foundation
GREAT MOMs Expansion | Berrien, Kent, and Muskegon Counties | $100,000
Spectrum Health Lakeland Foundation
Pop-Up Art & Wellness Center: Pop into Resilience | Berrien County | $55,474
Sturgis Area Community Foundation
Joseph County Fresh Food Distribution | St. Joseph County | $70,000
Sylvester Broom Empowerment Village
North Flint Nutrition Collaborative | Flint | $100,000
The Regents of the University of Michigan
Pilot: Virtual, Peer-Led Trans Support Groups and Care | Statewide | $87,593
The Regents of the University of Michigan
Pop-Up Safety Town: Injury Prevention for Head Start Kids | Genesee, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Shiawassee, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties | $100,000
The Regents of the University of Michigan
Reducing Mental Health Challenges with Race‐Related Therapy | Detroit | $100,000
Washtenaw County Community Mental Health
Young Adult Support Teams for those at High Risk for Suicide | Washtenaw, Wayne, Livingston, Lenawee, Jackson, and Oakland counties | $99,552
Wayne State University
Preventing falls before they occur | Southeast Michigan | $100,000
Wayne State University
Strengths-Based Supervision | Wayne and Oakland Counties | $100,000
West Midland Family Center
Healthy Habits for Life | Midland County | $15,600
Western U.P. Health Department
Preparing, Eating, and Choosing Healthy (PEACH) | Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon Counties | $100,000
CAPACITY BUILDING
Community Food Club
Community Food Club Model Replication Project | Grand Rapids, MI | $50,000
Community Housing Network, Inc.
Implementing a Trauma Informed Care Approach to Services | Troy, MI | $50,000
Ele’s Place
Increasing Evaluation Capacity | Ann Arbor, Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids, MI | $50,000
Focus: HOPE
Design Thinking for the Food Justice Program | Detroit, MI | $50,000
Food Gatherers
Community Voices Project: Integrating Equity into Evaluation | Ann Arbor, MI | $47,000
Greater Midland
Greater Midland: Growing our Sustainability | Midland, MI | $50,000
Health Net of West Michigan
Building Capacity Through Development of Internal Expertise | Grand Rapids, MI | $50,000
Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, Inc.
SafeSpace: Environmental Health Home Screening Application | Grand Rapids, MI | $50,000
Holland Free Health Clinic
Increasing Access to Healthcare through Intake Enhancements | Holland, MI | $20,000
Little Brothers—Friends of the Elderly
Capacity Building for Donor Stewardship | Hancock, MI | $50,000
Michigan Breast Feeding Network (MIBFN)
2020 MIBFN Network Meetings and Community | Lansing, MI | $50,000
Michigan Health Improvement Alliance
Optimizing Evaluation Metrics of the THRIVE initiative | Bay City, MI | $49,995
Michigan Transportation Connection
ConnectUP | Lansing, MI | $50,000
Mosaic Counseling
Integrated Database System | Grand Haven, MI | $30,000
Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association
Capacity Building of César E. Chávez Farmers’ Market | Grand Rapids | $25,000
ShareCare of Leelanau, Inc.
The Costs and Benefits of Aging in Place | Lake Leelanau | $48,858
The Wayne County SAFE Program
Improving Services for Survivors of Sexual Violence | Detroit | $50,000
Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions
UPHCS – Evaluation Capacity Building Project | Marquette | $38,155