Michigan Health Endowment Fund awards $5.3M to community health initiatives

LANSING, Mich. (WLUC) – The Michigan Health Endowment Fund (Health Fund) announced today that it will support 70 health projects and capacity building efforts across the state with a total of $5.3 million in new investments. Nonprofits, universities, and government agencies statewide will receive grants ranging from $15,600 to $100,000 under the Health Fund’s Community Health Impact grant program. (See a full list of grant recipients at the bottom of this release.)

“This program is about supporting the health of Michigan communities, collaborating around improved access to services, and building organizational capacities,” said Megan Murphy, senior program officer. “We can’t wait to see how these organizations help move their communities toward more sustainable health outcomes.”

Many of the selected projects respond to the Health Fund’s focus areas of increasing access to healthy food, wellness and fitness programs, and mental health services. Nearly all of them will serve the Health Fund’s target populations of children and older adults.

For example, in Kalamazoo County, the Health Fund is joining a collaborative of funders to support an Autism Alliance of Michigan pilot project that will expand care for children with autism who have experienced psychiatric crises. Another grant will help the Detroit Area Agency on Aging and Southeastern Michigan food access organizations coordinate and integrate food delivery services for older adults, during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

New to the program this year are the 18 grants that are funding capacity building efforts. These cover one-time internal expenses that will improve the effectiveness and sustainability of the organizations’ work, such as enhancements in evaluation, technology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. For these grants, the Health Fund prioritized health-focused organizations with operating budgets under $5 million.

“If we want to see the health of our state improve, we need to do our part to ensure the organizations working on those issues are able to reach their full potential,” Murphy said.

Many aspects of community health have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, making these projects especially vital.

“So many of these initiatives—increasing food access, support for older adults, mental health treatment, and more—are responding to needs that have been heightened by the current health crisis,” explained Health Fund CEO Paul Hillegonds. “We’re inspired by our grant partners’ shared commitment to the health of Michigan residents during this difficult time.”

Here is the full list of grant awards:

—COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPACT PROJECTS—

Allen Neighborhood Center
Access to Healthy Food for Refugees | Lansing | $36,125

Alpena Area Senior Citizens Council, Inc.
Alpena Empowered Movement Program | Alpena County | $100,000

American Cancer Society – NCR
FoodFit of Macomb County | Macomb County | $81,620

Arbor Circle
Keep Early Education Positive (KEEP) | Kent County | $99,048

Arbor Circle
Medically Fragile Foster Care – Analysis and Planning | Southwest Michigan | $62,677

Autism Alliance of Michigan
Addressing Psychiatric Boarding of ASD Patients in EDs | Kalamazoo County | $100,000

Bethany Housing Ministries, Inc d.b.a Community Encompass
Muskegon Prescribes Food For Health | Muskegon County | $100,000

Bronson Health Foundation
Bronson CenteringPregnancy | Kalamazoo County | $31,750

Calvin University
Addressing Stigma: Lay Ambassadors for Mental Health | Grand Rapids | $99,950

Chaldean Community Foundation
The Fun & Fit Health Program | Macomb and Oakland Counties | $90,425

Child & Family Services of Northwestern Michigan
Reducing Barriers to Mental Health Care for Foster Children and Families | Northwest Michigan | $100,000

Child and Family Charities
Mid-Michigan Trauma Collaborative | Clinton, Eaton, and Ingham Counties | $50,000

City of Dearborn
Dearborn PIPERS | Dearborn | $95,990

Covenant Community Care, Inc.
Shared Mobility for Patients in Northwest Detroit | Detroit | $70,180

Detroit Area Agency on Aging
Coordinated Food Delivery Systems | Detroit | $100,000

Detroit Educational Television Foundation
PBS Healthy Kids: Preschool Partnership Initiative | Wayne and Monroe Counties | $90,000

District Health Department #10
Live Well For Your Heart | Missaukee and Wexford Counties | $100,000

Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program
Seeded at the Table | Detroit | $85,000

Eastern Michigan University
The SOCIAL Partnership | Wayne and Washtenaw Counties | $100,000

Grand Rapids African American Health Institute
Closer to Care | Kent County | $89,420

Greater Detroit Area Health Council
Choose Health Expansion Project | Macomb County | $99,764

Health Department of Northwest Michigan
Integrating School Mindfulness Education District-Wide | Emmet County School Districts | $100,000

Heart of West Michigan United Way
Birth Equity Through Doulas of Color | Kent County | $100,000

Henry Ford Health System
Building a Base of Evidence for Fresh Prescription | Detroit | $100,000

Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County
Video Based eVolunteering | Washtenaw County | $100,000

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Debweyendan (“believe in it”) Indigenous Gardens (DIGs) | Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon Counties | $100,000

Kids Kicking Cancer
Trauma in Transition | Southeast Michigan | $100,000

Lutheran Child and Family Services of Michigan Inc., D.B.A. Wellspring Lutheran Services
Wellspring Recovery High School | Southeast Michigan | $100,000

Lutheran Homes of Michigan, D.B.A. Wellspring Lutheran Services
Geriatric Substance Abuse Recovery Program (WSARP) | Wayne, Oakland, and Washtenaw Counties | $100,000

Michigan Chapter of the National Children’s Alliance
Increasing Treatment Options for Child Victims | Statewide | $81,116

Michigan Council for Maternal and Child Health
Michigan Model for Health Website Update | Statewide | $64,920

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services
Transportation Resources to Medicaid Beneficiaries | Statewide | $100,000

Michigan Public Health Institute
Birth Detroit Easy Access Clinic | Northwest Detroit | $100,000

Michigan State University
College Students as Family Caregivers | Ingham and Washtenaw Counties | $99,921

MidMichigan Health Foundation
Go Thrive! | Ogemaw, Gladwin, Iosco, Roscommon, Arenac, Oscoda, and Clare Counties | $100,000

Our Kitchen Table
Educate to Elevate | Grand Rapids | $24,050

Pediatric Foundation of Michigan
Adolescent Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Program | Kent, Washtenaw, Oakland, Genesee, Livingston and Ingham counties | $89,143

Personalized Nursing LIGHT House
Extended Care Post discharge from Addiction Treatment | Wayne and Oakland Counties | $83,886

Porter Hills Foundation
Dementia Training to Reduce Caregiver Stress and Burnout | Holland and Muskegon | $100,000

Project Healthy Community
Fresh Prescriptions | Northwest Detroit | $94,400

Spectrum Health Foundation
GREAT MOMs Expansion | Berrien, Kent, and Muskegon Counties | $100,000

Spectrum Health Lakeland Foundation
Pop-Up Art & Wellness Center: Pop into Resilience | Berrien County | $55,474

Sturgis Area Community Foundation
St. Joseph County Fresh Food Distribution | St. Joseph County | $70,000

Sylvester Broom Empowerment Village
North Flint Nutrition Collaborative | Flint | $100,000

The Regents of the University of Michigan
Pilot: Virtual, Peer-Led Trans Support Groups and Care | Statewide | $87,593

The Regents of the University of Michigan
Pop-Up Safety Town: Injury Prevention for Head Start Kids | Genesee, Hillsdale, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Shiawassee, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties | $100,000

The Regents of the University of Michigan
Reducing Mental Health Challenges with Race‐Related Therapy | Detroit | $100,000

Washtenaw County Community Mental Health
Young Adult Support Teams for those at High Risk for Suicide | Washtenaw, Wayne, Livingston, Lenawee, Jackson, and Oakland counties | $99,552

Wayne State University
Preventing falls before they occur | Southeast Michigan | $100,000

Wayne State University
Strengths-Based Supervision | Wayne and Oakland Counties | $100,000

West Midland Family Center
Healthy Habits for Life | Midland County | $15,600

Western U.P. Health Department
Preparing, Eating, and Choosing Healthy (PEACH) | Baraga, Gogebic, Houghton, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon Counties | $100,000

–CAPACITY BUILDING PROJECTS—

Community Food Club
Community Food Club Model Replication Project | Grand Rapids | $50,000

Community Housing Network, Inc.
Implementing a Trauma Informed Care Approach to Services | Troy | $50,000

Ele’s Place
Increasing Evaluation Capacity | Ann Arbor, Lansing, Flint, Grand Rapids | $50,000

Focus: HOPE
Design Thinking for the Food Justice Program | Detroit, | $50,000

Food Gatherers
Community Voices Project: Integrating Equity into Evaluation | Ann Arbor | $47,000

Greater Midland
Greater Midland: Growing our Sustainability | Midland | $50,000

Health Net of West Michigan
Building Capacity Through Development of Internal Expertise | Grand Rapids | $50,000

Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, Inc.
SafeSpace: Environmental Health Home Screening Application | Grand Rapids | $50,000

Holland Free Health Clinic
Increasing Access to Healthcare through Intake Enhancements | Holland | $20,000

Little Brothers—Friends of the Elderly
Capacity Building for Donor Stewardship | Hancock | $50,000

Michigan Breast Feeding Network (MIBFN)
2020 MIBFN Network Meetings and Community | Lansing | $50,000

Michigan Health Improvement Alliance
Optimizing Evaluation Metrics of the THRIVE initiative | Bay City | $49,995

Michigan Transportation Connection
ConnectUP | Lansing | $50,000

Mosaic Counseling
Integrated Database System | Grand Haven | $30,000

Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association
Capacity Building of César E. Chávez Farmers’ Market | Grand Rapids | $25,000

ShareCare of Leelanau, Inc.
The Costs and Benefits of Aging in Place | Lake Leelanau | $48,858

The Wayne County SAFE Program
Improving Services for Survivors of Sexual Violence | Detroit | $50,000

Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions
UPHCS – Evaluation Capacity Building Project | Marquette | $38,155

uppermichiganssource.com/content/news/Michigan-Health-Endowment-Fund-awards-53M-to-community-health-initiatives-570574191.html