The Health Fund Board of Directors has approved 65 new grants totaling $13,776,934, with investments touching five different grant programs. The majority of grants will support projects through the Health Fund’s Community Health & Capacity Building, Healthy Aging, and Special Projects & Emerging Ideas grant programs.  

Together, these investments aim to support better health for residents across Michigan, ranging from newborn infants to older adults and the people who care for them. 

A full list of new grant projects can be found at the bottom of this post. 

AGING GRANTS ADDRESS EQUITY, WORKFORCE, DEMENTIA, AND MORE

Our 2024 Healthy Aging Initiative is investing $5,382,628 in 19 new grants aimed at strengthening access to care, improving community supports, bolstering the aging workforce, and promoting equity for communities that face disproportionate barriers to health and well-being.

This includes several investments in projects that strengthen resources for people with dementia and their families. As just one example, a $143,510 grant will help Dementia Friendly Saline expand its successful Dementia Friendly Movie Program to several additional communities in Southeast Michigan through a partnership with Emagine Theatres.

The project invites people with dementia and their caregivers to attend special screenings of classic films, with dementia-friendly sound and lighting conditions and supportive staff all helping to create a fun and enriching experience.

Grantees in this cohort are also building innovative programs to improve oral health and expand access to palliative care for older adults, developing culturally competent care for underserved populations, addressing housing-related needs, and more.

In addition, several grants take novel approaches to strengthening the health care workforce serving Michigan’s older adults. For example, a grant to Commonweal — in partnership with Hospice of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Corrections, and the Michigan Public Health Institute — will train incarcerated individuals to assist in providing palliative care to older adults with chronic illnesses in men’s and women’s prisons.

Based on a successful pilot in California, the project will fill important gaps in care for an underserved population, ease demands on prison medical staff, and provide career skills and rehabilitative opportunities to help trainees be more successful after their release from prison.

“There are so many outstanding ideas represented in this year’s Healthy Aging cohort,” said Kari Sederburg, Vice President of Programs and Director for Healthy Aging. “These projects stood out because of their creativity, compassion, and commitment to helping people in our state age better, particularly those who face barriers to getting the support they need.”

The Healthy Aging Initiative invested in seven additional projects earlier in 2024, making our total grantmaking through this program just under $8 million.

SPEI GRANTS INVEST IN STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS TO STATEWIDE CHALLENGES

The Health Fund’s Special Projects & Emerging Ideas (SPEI) Initiative is intended to enable transformational, statewide, and systemic change through invitation-only partnerships. Our 2024 SPEI grant round includes 12 new grants totaling $4,108,431. These grants aim to advance broad-reaching initiatives with the potential to spark creative solutions for complex challenges facing our state.

Our 2024 SPEI cohort includes investments aimed at increasing access to care and lowering costs, enhancing technology to promote health, and removing barriers to advance equity for populations with unique health-related needs.

Several of these grants support partnerships between state agencies, non-profits, health care providers, and statewide associations, including several projects aimed at strengthening Medicaid and other critical systems that influence health outcomes for large numbers of Michigan residents.

For example, a grant to the Michigan Association of Health Plans aims to help create a common credentialing process that will expedite the process for health care providers to participate in multiple Medicaid health plan networks through a single credentialing application. Similar efforts in other states resulted in a two-month reduction in the amount of time it takes for providers to get approved, making the process faster and less duplicative for providers and expanding the network available to serve Medicaid beneficiaries.

Meanwhile, a separate SPEI project aims to increase support to individuals who experience chronic homelessness and have complex behavioral health needs. A grant to MDHHS — in partnership with housing experts, community mental health providers, and health plans — aims to develop and implement regional pilots to increase use of housing assistance benefits through Medicaid and provide wraparound services through a supportive housing model.

“In our 2024 SPEI projects, coalitions of committed partners are working across sectors to address the complex, systemic health challenges faced by Michigan communities,” said Becky Cienki, Director for Behavioral Health & Special Projects. “We’re excited to add important fuel to drive these efforts forward through these latest investments.”

CHI, CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS ADD TO COMMUNITY IMPACT

Our 2024 Community Health & Capacity Building Initiative supports nonprofits and collaborative partnerships to implement community-driven initiatives and build important capacity to help health-focused organizations achieve their missions.

Grants from the initiative were invested through two cycles in 2024. In our second cycle, the Health Fund is allocating $3,256,702 to support 30 projects in three categories:

  • Community Health Impact (CHI) grants support organizations working closely with local communities to implement community-driven interventions.
  • Organizational Capacity Building grants help organizations become stronger, more effective institutions to better serve their goals.
  • Collaborative Capacity Building grants help increase collaboration among providers, agencies, businesses, and other community partners to support sustainable, long-term solutions to health challenges.

Together, these grants build on expertise within communities by providing resources and a catalyst to develop new solutions, while ensuring Michigan has strong organizations and partnerships to serve communities effectively.

For example, a CHI grant to Present Pillars will provide dedicated staffing to address social determinants of health in Benton Harbor with a goal to reach more young Black men, a group that faces significant health disparities and barriers to accessing supportive services. Through the grant, a community health worker will conduct outreach through trusted spaces like barbershops, assess program health and social needs, offer preventative health screenings, and make warm referrals to local providers and resources.

Meanwhile, a Collaborative Capacity Building grant to Kalamazoo’s Gryphon Place will support a community-wide effort to reduce gun violence by addressing the underlying health and social needs that often contribute to cycles of violence. The project will strengthen coordination across a wide coalition of government and community-based partners through integrated technology platforms.

“The high level of interest we’ve experienced shows the clear need for investment in our nonprofits and in community-driven health solutions,” said Veronica Marchese, Program Officer for Community Health & Capacity Building. “We’re thrilled to support an impressive range of projects and organizations through the second cycle of our 2024 program, touching communities in nearly every part of Michigan.”

These latest grants will add to the impact from 23 awards earlier in the year, bringing our total grantmaking through the 2024 Community Health & Capacity Building Initiative to $6,126,055 across 53 different grants.

OFF-CYCLE AWARDS ROUND OUT MATERNAL & INFANT HEALTH, NUTRITION & HEALTHY LIFESTYLES GRANTMAKING

The Health Fund board has also approved two grants totaling $629,173 as off-cycle investments through our Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles Initiative, as well as two grants totaling $400,000 to support new projects under our Maternal & Infant Health Initiative. These projects are being funded outside our standard cycles for these grant programs to meet strategic, time-sensitive project goals.

These will be our final investments in 2024 and cap a year of grantmaking that included more than $36 million to support 167 projects.

2024 HEALTHY AGING GRANTS

Commonweal
Planning & Partnership Development — $295,500

Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance
Raising Hope Senior Program — $100,000

Eastern Michigan University
Culturally Adapted Social Programs for Older Asian Americans — $499,948

Evangelical Homes of Michigan Foundation (Lead Partner: Dementia Friendly Saline)
Expansion of Dementia Friendly Movie Program — $143,510

Family Network of Wyoming
Durable Medical Equipment (DME) at Your Door — $60,000

Gay Elders of Metro Detroit DBA MiGen
Supporting LGBTQ+ Inclusive PACE Programs (SLIPP) — $250,000

Habitat for Humanity Detroit
Return Home Safe — $500,000

Holland Home
Giving VOICE to Persons Living with Dementia — $378,736

Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan DBA Centrica Care Navigators
Palliative Care Expansion in Van Buren and Cass Counties — $495,142

Methodist Children’s Home Society DBA MCHS Family of Services
Trauma-Informed Care Intergenerational Pilot Program — $250,000

Michigan Center for Rural Health
Cultivating Comfort: Enhancing Palliative Care in Rural Michigan — $265,724

Michigan State University
Collaborative Workforce Training: Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Residents’ Oral Care — $173,370

Milan Seniors for Healthy Living
Milan Oasis, A Dementia Friendly Respite Retreat — $259,185

The Regents of the University of Michigan
Wellbeing with Implant-Overdentures for Michigan Seniors — $500,000

Resthaven
Widening and Diversifying the Direct Care Workforce Pipeline — $200,278

ShareCare of Leelanau, Inc.
Memory Café — $80,000

Upper Great Lakes Family Health Center
Healthy Aging Care Coordination — $332,721

Washtenaw Housing Alliance
Shared Housing Program for Older Adults in Washtenaw County — $100,000

WellWise Services Area Agency on Aging
Elder Justice Advocacy, Prevention, and Supportive Services — $498,514

SPECIAL PROJECTS & EMERGING IDEAS GRANTS

Easterseals MORC
Michigan Technology First Initiative — $352,692

Grand Valley State University
Securing Services for Infants at Risk for Developmental Delays — $79,639

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital
Patient-Centered Value-Based Stroke Rehabilitation — $460,871

Michigan Association of Health Plans
Michigan Medicaid Common Credentialing — $325,500

Michigan Association for Local Public Health
Effective Engagement in Public Health: Moving On from COVID — $224,850

Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health
Documenting Support for School Nurses — $128,177

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Implementing Specialty Behavioral Health Housing Assistance — $500,000

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Michigan’s Section 1115 Reentry Demo: Collaborative Planning & Strategic Implementation — $496,702

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Juvenile Justice System Reform and Reinvestment Initiative — $500,000

Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
Michigan’s Qualified Interpreter Program: Census — $40,000

Michigan Primary Care Association
Development of a Coordinating Intermediary for Medicaid ILOS — $500,000

Michigan State University
Rx Kids – Eastern Upper Peninsula — $500,000

COMMUNITY HEALTH & CAPACITY BUILDING GRANTS

Community Health Impact
Access Health, Inc.
Strengthening Muskegon’s CIE through Community Leadership — $150,000

Ecology Center
Lift MI (Lead-Impacted Families Together Michigan) — $150,000

K-Connect (Lead Partner: No Surrender Running Club)
Sports as a Tool for Equitable, Lasting Health Outcomes — $50,000

Methodist Children’s Home Society dba MCHS Family of Services
Maintaining Community Voice Project — $150,000

Present Pillars Foundation
Present Pillars Health Navigation Program — $150,000

The Shul
Positive Parenting — $150,000

Starr Commonwealth
Albion-Marshall Resilient Communities Project 2.0 — $150,000

United Way of Southwest Michigan
Building Community Power for Collective Action — $150,000

YesRx
Improving MI American Indian Cancer Care & Community Health — $150,000

Organizational Capacity Building
AgeWell Services of West Michigan
Archaic to Modern: Organizational Infrastructure Improvements — $22,600

AYA Youth Collective
Implementing an Organizational Operating System — $91,200

Care Free Medical Inc.
Technology Improvements for Care Free Medical and Optometry — $56,900

Catherine’s Health Center
Improving FQHC Sustainability through Strategic Assessment — $87,100

Community Action House
Integrated Relationship Management System — $80,643

Elephant Circle (Lead Partner: Sage Midwifery)
Evaluating Community-Centered Midwifery Education — $150,000

Enriched Living
Fostering Community Transformation by Supporting AFC Homes — $75,000

Family Promise of West Michigan
Updating and Improving Financial Management — $61,490

From the Ground Farmers Market Collective
Growing Farmers Markets in the Western Upper Peninsula — $50,000

Gogebic Range Health Foundation
Leadership Development to Build Organizational Capacity — $48,700

Guiding Harbor
Guiding Harbor Trauma Informed Care — $24,100

Hands Across the Water, Inc.
Serving Foster Clients through Better Staff Retention — $59,049

Kent School Services Network
KSSN: Professional Learning and Development — $111,655

LifeLab Kids Foundation
Scaling Operations with Expanded Technology — $107,000

Michigan Community Health Worker Alliance
Enhancing Access, Inclusivity, and Efficacy in CHW Training — $150,000

PACE North
PACE North Organizational Capacity Building — $149,817

Pioneer Resources Inc.
Empowering DCWs for Improved Health Outcomes — $150,000

United Way of Marquette County
Enhancing Health Nonprofit Capacities with Shared Services — $150,000

Collaborative Capacity Building
CARE House of Oakland County, Inc.
Oakland County Child Abuse Medical Response Collaborative — $150,000

Connect Detroit
Detroit Youth Mental Wellness & Resilience Collaborative — $81,448

Gryphon Place
Community Information Exchange — $150,000

2024 MATERNAL & INFANT HEALTH GRANTS

District Health Department #10
Improving Access to Care for Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) — $200,000

Michigan State University
Patient Advocate App — $200,000

2024 NUTRITION & HEALTHY LIFESTYLES GRANTS

BFDI Educational Services (Lead Partner: I Can Education and Enrichment Center, Inc.)
High 5 Multi-Generation Family Nutrition & Health Initiative — $254,520

Eastern Michigan University
Statewide Community Health Worker Initiative for Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyles — $374,653

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