Greater Haverhill and Essex County will share in $17.9 million in a variety of state grants—including about $1 million each to the Merrimack Valley Project and Latino Support Network—aimed at improving health and helping residents live healthier lives.
Officials said grants are targeted to support local issues including access to healthy food and housing, behavioral health, healthy aging and other factors that have a direct impact on the health and well-being of residents.
“The strongest solutions come from the people who know their communities best, and these investments will help transform that knowledge into action,” said Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein. “This funding will mean healthier places to live, work and age, and it will enable people to access the resources and opportunities they need to be healthy—and to stay healthy.
Besides Lawrence-based Merrimack Valley Project, with chapters in Greater Haverhill and Lowell, and Latino Support Network, Harborlight Community Partners, serving Essex County, also received $752,886 in Policy, Systems and Environmental Change grants.
A $500,000 Healthy Aging Grant went to Health Care for All to serve Bristol, Essex, Hampden, and Suffolk counties and $400,000 to Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. A $100,000 Community Health Improvement Planning grant was awarded to the Food Project
Grants will be distributed over three to five years among the 31 awardees. Grants come from a collaboration between the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Executive Office of Aging and Independence and Health Resources in Action.
Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds were established in 2017 following revisions to the Department of Public Health’s Determination of Need regulations. The Funds are supported by contributions from hospitals, long-term care facilities and other health care entities through the Determination of Need Community Health Initiative.
Previous investments have supported projects including affordable housing and green space, efforts to improve behavioral health access for immigrant, refugee and culturally diverse communities and a community-driven food hub in Springfield.