The Bureau of Community Health and Prevention at the MA Department of Public Health is hosting listening sessions to inform the future of the Mass in Motion program and those in the Mass. Healthy Aging Collaborative network are encouraged to join.

Through this series of listening sessions, MDPH will collect stakeholder input on elements of a Request for Response (RFR) that will fund local efforts to improve Social Determinants of Health through the Mass in Motion Municipal Wellness and Leadership Initiative.

MDPH is also issuing a Request for Information (RFI) for the same purpose, found here: https://www.commbuys.com/bso/external/bidDetail.sdo?docId=BD-21-1031-BCHAP-BCH01-53653&external=true&parentUrl=bid.

​The lack of healthy eating and physical activity are two of three leading causes of preventable death and disease in Massachusetts. Access to healthy foods and opportunities for safe physical activity are not available to everyone and are based on differences in our built and social environments created by the Social Determinants of Health and historic inequities such as structural racism.

​The mission of Mass in Motion is to increase equitable access to healthy eating and active living by: engaging residents who experience inequities (people with lived experience) to understand why those inequities exist, prioritizing solutions based on these lived experiences, and partnering with people in other sectors and across municipal government to implement policy and practice solutions and increase and align local spending to improve health. The anticipated RFR will support this mission by funding local and regional entities to implement local policy, systems, and environmental change strategies that address and improve Social Determinants of Health using a leading with race framework to address structural racism and other root cause barriers to good health.

These listening sessions will help Mass in Motion in finalizing the RFR. It is anticipated that the RFR will be released in October on www.commbuys.com . New contracts will be active on or about July 1, 2022. This RFR replaces current Mass in Motion Municipal Wellness and Leadership Initiative programs funded under RFR #502925.