NEWS

Age-Friendly Funding Alert: BCBS of MA Foundation Special Initiatives, CHEF Grant Program, Grant Reminders

May 15, 2024

The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative is pleased to promote the following funding opportunities that help support inclusive age-and dementia friendly communities:

The Special Initiatives Grant Program provides organizations with a one-time grant of up to $50,000 to pilot or launch a new project over a one-year period. This grant is intended to fund projects that empower communities to advance health equity. Projects should positively impact the health or health care related needs of those Massachusetts residents who have been economically, socially, culturally, or racially marginalized. The goal of this grant program is to help these projects be sustained, scaled, and potentially replicated. The Foundation expects to award between 5 and 6 grants during this cycle.

Special Initiatives grant proposals must align with one or more of the Foundation’s three focus areas: access to health coverage and care, access to behavioral health services, and elimination of structural racism and racial inequities in health. Further eligibility requirements and grant guidelines are outlined on the Foundation’s website.

Please visit the BCBS of MA Foundation website for details about how to apply. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to thoroughly review all materials, including the Special Initiatives FAQ.

Under the banner of Hannaford’s “Eat Well. Be Well. – A Path to Better Health” initiative, the CHEF (Connection, Health & Equity through Food) Grant Program will fund organizations and projects supporting the needs of diverse older adults, including improving equitable access to food, and increasing opportunities for socialization.

Grants will allow awardees to make investments in programmatic infrastructure, sustainably expand current programming and/or launch innovative, new programming that supports the food and social connection needs of older people. Priority will be given to projects and programs that serve diverse older people, veterans, and older people living with disabilities. Funds can also be used to help find solutions to the root causes of food insecurity and social isolation, including but not limited to poverty, transportation, rurality, and language barriers.

The CHEF program is administered by the Maine Council on Aging and available to Massachusetts-based organizations. See this link for details.

The Massachusetts Office on Disability, (MOD) is pleased to announce the Municipal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Improvement Grant Program application and selection process is open as of May1. Eligible applicants include any Massachusetts city or town. These grants will support capital improvements specifically dedicated to improving programmatic access and/or removing barriers encountered by persons with disabilities in applicant facilities throughout the Commonwealth.  Grants will be awarded to successful applicants to remove barriers and create and improve accessible features and programmatic access for persons with disabilities throughout the Commonwealth.

Examples include but are not limited to increasing both physical access and programmatic access through the addition of features such as: ramps, elevators, power lifts and Limited Use/Limited Application (LULAs) signage, communication access devices, curb cuts and/or any other features that are designed to improve architectural access and/or programmatic access.  Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis to projects that demonstrate real and tangible positive impacts to persons with disabilities.

More information is available here.

ACL has released the 2024 funding opportunity for the Alzheimer’s Disease Programs Initiative – Grants to States and Communities program. Cooperative agreement grants awarded under this opportunity will support and promote the development and expansion of dementia-capable home and community-based service systems in states, communities, and tribes. The dementia-capable systems resulting from program activities are expected to provide quality, strengths-based, person-centered services and supports that help people living with dementia and their caregivers remain independent and safe in their communities.

More information, including the application, is available here.

Massachusetts Councils on Aging (MCOA) is pleased to announce grant opportunities for Field Demonstration Projects (FDP) for the FY25 Council on Aging direct grants cycle. MCOA intends to award state Service Incentive Grant (SIG) funds, contingent upon final approval by the Governor of the state budget. These funds will be used to provide direct grants to COAs under the following three categories and twelve project areas that have been approved by EOEA.

These grants cover Age and Dementia Friendly efforts among other various categories such as Capacity Building, Innovations, Improving Access and Inclusion, and more.

More information is available here.

The Residential Retrofit Program is to deploy state of the art broadband infrastructure at approximately 22,000 Public & Affordable Housing properties across Massachusetts. MBI intends to increase low-income residents’ opportunity to access high-quality, reliable, and affordable broadband service in their homes by addressing deficient wiring and infrastructure through grants for the deployment of fiberoptic cabling to the unit to qualified Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) who will install, own, and maintain equipment.

Improved infrastructure and enhanced connectivity will enable residents of Public & Affordable Housing to engage in essential daily activities such as working remotely, pursuing educational opportunities, and accessing healthcare from home.

The Residential Retrofit Program is funded by the U.S. Department of Treasury Capital Projects Fund (CPF) grant. MBI will make available grants covering 100% of the eligible capital costs associated with the retrofit of eligible properties.

The expression of interest form for housing operators is available here and communities working to become age- and dementia friendly are encouraged to engage local housing partners for this opportunity.

MBI’s Municipal Digital Equity Implementation Program seeks to enable municipalities who need funding to mobilize, start-up, and implement digital equity activities locally to access a one-time grant up to $100,000 per municipality to execute a project (or projects) defined in their Digital Equity Plan, Digital Equity Planning Charette, or pre-existing local digital equity plan or related document that MBI deems of sufficient standard.

Project implementation will increase access and usage of the internet for the populations most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative encourages communities to include older adults in their project applications.

Communities that have completed a digital equity plan or charrette through the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program are eligible. Municipalities are strongly encouraged to utilize their planning consultants from the Municipal Digital Equity Planning Program to define a project (or set of projects) scope and budget for implementation. Upon approval from MBI, municipalities may start project implementation and will be accountable to MBI’s reporting requirements, which vary by proposed focus area(s). Note that the process of applying to the Municipal Digital Equity Implementation Program will differ for municipalities that have not engaged in the Planning Program. More information is provided in the Program Details and FAQs.

Specifically, the Municipal Digital Equity Implementation Program will accomplish three goals:

  1. Enable municipalities to make local digital equity investments that will increase access, adoption, and usage of the internet for the populations most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  2. Transition municipalities from the planning to implementation phase by providing funds to execute a project (or projects) indicated in their Digital Equity Plan, Digital Equity Planning Charette, or pre-existing plan deemed sufficient by MBI.
  3. Encourage collaboration and synergy with the Digital Equity Partnerships Program, which includes statewide and regional grantees with high capacity for digital equity work.

More information is available here.

The next grant round of Festivals & Projects will fund activities that provide public benefit using the arts, humanities, or sciences and take place between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. These awards of $2,500 will support cultural celebrations, concert series, film festivals, public art projects, art workshops, pop-up markets, art and nature hikes – and more – across the Commonwealth.

Eligible festivals, projects, and programs are publicly available or community-based. Funds will be available to support activities that are open to the general public, or focused on serving the needs of a particular community. This could be a geographic community, ethnic heritage, or cultural/tribal tradition and may include events, education, performances, conservation, or cultural revitalization efforts. Eligible festivals and projects may also serve portions of the general public requiring specific accommodation (i.e. seniors in care centers, incarcerated individuals, people with disabilities, people in recovery programs, etc.).

More details, including eligibility, are available here.