The administrators of the Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds are seeking Advisory Committee applications. Advisory Committee members are asked to leverage their expertise, lived experience, and
their community’s perspectives to inform the creation of grantmaking and processes that (1) support
and reflect communities and (2) ultimately help to ensure all Massachusetts residents have an equitable
opportunity to achieve the highest possible quality of life.

In January 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) completed a landmark revision
of the Determination of Need (DoN) regulation which led to the creation of the Massachusetts
Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds (The Funds). Resources for the Community Health and
Healthy Aging Funds are from hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other healthcare entities that are
required to contribute through the MDPH’s Determination of Need Program.

The primary role of the Advisory Committee is to provide recommendations for the operations of the
MA Community Health & Healthy Aging Funds, specifically the practical application of values and
principles.

The committee is not responsible for developing any funding opportunity materials (e.g. RFPs),
reviewing applications or making funding decisions. Health Resources in Action (HRiA), as the Fiscal Agent for the Funds, is responsible for these activities under the direction of MDPH. However, Committee members can
choose to participate on the Review Committee, which includes a Conflict-of-Interest process and policy.
Membership with the Funds’ Advisory Committee will be jointly determined by MDPH, EOEA, and HRiA.

Within this Advisory Committee, MDPH seeks representation from:

• Massachusetts residents and regional stakeholders who can provide recommendations based
on lived experience or lived experience of oppression, knowledge, and influence on effective
strategies and initiatives that support healthy aging and community health efforts and/or
expertise in at least one of the six DoN Health Priorities. Lived experience is defined as
someone who has lived (or is currently living) with the issues the community is focusing on and
who may have insight to offer about the system as it is experienced by consumers (i.e.
substance use disorder, homelessness, etc.)

Lived experience of oppression is the sum of an individual’s past events and personal history
with navigating systems of power through their marginalized/oppressed identities or
backgrounds. Lived experience is not defined ONLY as one’s firsthand experiences – a person’s
circumstances must have been filtered through encounters where their stability or well-being
was negatively impacted by systemic oppression1

• Those who can apply a healthy aging lens to a community-based and social determinant of
health approach.
• Those who can apply a community health lens to a community-based and social determinant of
health approach.
• Those who can apply a racial and health equity lens to a community-based and social
determinant of health approach.
• MA-based professional associations whose work directly impacts one or more of the six DoN
Health Priorities.

More information with details on how to apply can be found here.