Maine Health Access Foundation awards $2 million to 11 communities
Photo / James McCarthy
Barbara Leonard, who became president and CEO of Maine Health Access Foundation on Oct. 1, says her organization seeks to foster innovative approaches to improving health and health care systems in Maine.
The Maine Health Access Foundation has selected 11 Maine communities to receive a total of more than $2 million over three years to implement projects under the foundation’s “Healthy Community” grant initiative.
In its announcement, MeHAF said the grant recipients were selected from among 16 communities, adding that the grants are part of its work “to improve health and promote collaborative, locally led efforts that can help transform communities into supportive environments that enable people to live healthier lives.”
Grant recipients plan to address health issues that include substance use disorder and behavioral health, obesity and nutrition, safe neighborhoods and aging.
“The communities are using a variety of strategies to coordinate and align the appropriate organizations, sectors, and resources to address these critical health issues, while leveraging MeHAF funds with other sources of support to implement and sustain their projects,” MeHAF President and CEO Barbara Leonard said in a statement accompanying the announcement.
MeHAF is Maine’s largest, private, nonprofit health care foundation. It works with other stakeholders to promote access to quality health care, especially for those who are uninsured and under-served.
Healthy Community implementation grants
The 11 grant recipients and their projects:
Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Netukulimk Community Health and Wellness, $187,500.
Aroostook County Action Program Inc., Healthy Houlton, $187,500.
City of Bangor, Health & Community Services, Greater Bangor/Brewer Healthy Communities through Recovery Coaching and Collaboration, $187,500.
Healthy Community Coalition of Greater Franklin County, Health Opportunities through Poverty Elimination (HOPE), $187,500.
MaineGeneral Health, Healthy Northern Kennebec, Healthy Waterville: Increasing Community Connections and Access to Healthy Food for All, $187,500.
Penobscot Bay YMCA, Knox County Community Health Coalition, Voices of Knox County…Working Together for a Healthy Community, $187,500.
Piscataquis Regional YMCA, Feel Good Piscataquis! Healthy Food for All, $185,334
Redington-Fairview General Hospital, Greater Somerset Public Health Collaborative, Achieving Better Health in Jackman: The Aging Project, $187,499.
The Opportunity Alliance, Communities Promoting Health Coalition, Healthy Youth-Healthy Lake Region, $187,500.
Western Maine Community Action, Healthy Neighborhoods Lewiston/Auburn, $187,500.
Western Maine Health Care Corp., Oxford County Wellness Collaborative, Infusing Social Capital Development to Increase Effectiveness of Community Interventions, $187,500.
Charles Dwyer, MeHAF’s program officer overseeing the program, said a common denominator of the funded projects is their commitment “to meaningfully engage and develop the capacity of community members most affected by the selected health issue so that they have tangible involvement in framing the solutions.”
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