Grantee stories
Point32Health Foundation works with communities to support, advocate and advance healthier lives for everyone.
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OutstandingLife creates community
OutstandingLife is a new virtual platform designed for and by older LGBTQ+ people and allies. It offers online programming, resources and opportunities for connection—including Feel Good Fridays, intergenerational social events, plus legal and history programs.
The platform launched just in time for Pride Month in June. New programs and resources will be added to the platform in the coming months. Photo courtesy of OutstandingLife.
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Somali Bantu Community Association model yields results
Liberation Farms promotes “food justice, community building, and education in the form of inter-cultural and inter-generational exchange and reciprocal learning of farming traditions.” Working together, Somali Bantu farmers in Lewiston, Maine, sell crops to food pantries, shelters and schools, increasing access to healthy, culturally relevant food in Maine. Their story was recently featured in the Boston Globe.
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Connecticut Age Well Collaborative hosts Sharing and Caring Summit
The 2023 Wellspring Award winners Age-Friendly Glastonbury, Thrive55+ Active Living Center, Dementia-Friendly Southington and Central Connecticut State University were honored at the event.
Read Honoring Community Excellence: Examples of Innovation and Inspiration to learn more. Photo courtesy of Connecticut Age Well Collaborative.
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Wayfinders' classes advancing digital equity in Springfield
Respect—for each other, for varied relationships with technology, for a shared desire to learn—is at the heart of Way Finders’ Digital Literacy Class for older adults, which kicked off in May 2023. The effort builds on the organization’s Flexing Civic Muscle program, funded since 2019 by Point32Health Foundation, which focuses on building digital literacy and advancing digital equity among older adults in Springfield. Photo courtesy of Wayfinders.
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MCD Global Health coordinates response to urgent need
A behavioral health teletherapy program is changing the way students access behavioral health services in rural Washington County, Maine. A collaborative effort coordinated by Hallowell-based MCD Global Health (MCD) now gives students and staff at Woodland Elementary and Woodland Junior-Senior High School in Baileyville, Maine, and across the county’s AOS 90 school district, access to virtual behavioral health services and other needed resources. Photo courtesy of MCD Global.
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Flourish at Thrive food pantry opens in Worcester
With support from the Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts, Project Bread and a Point32Health Foundation grant, Thrive Support and Advocacy opened “Flourish at Thrive,” a food pantry designed to serve people with developmental disabilities and address food insecurity. Worcester Polytechnic Institute students helped create an accessible space to support community members with developmental disabilities who are four times as likely to have food allergies or dietary restrictions. The opening was featured on Spectrum News 1 and in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Photos courtesy of Thrive Support and Advocacy.
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Northern New Hampshire Mobile Health Clinic hits the road
The New Hampshire Medical Society and North Country Health Consortium launched the Northern New Hampshire Mobile Health Clinic along with four partner hospitals: Androscoggin Valley Hospital in Berlin, Littleton Regional Healthcare in Littleton, Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital in Colebrook, and Weeks Medical Center in Lancaster. A custom van designed for clinical services will be available at locations across northern New Hampshire with the goal of improving health equity in Coos and Grafton counties. A $500,000 Foundation grant helped launch the mobile clinic.
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Streamlining access To SNAP And MassHealth benefits
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute and the Massachusetts Senior Action Council worked in coalition with 150+ anti-poverty and public health organizations to simplify access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. As a result of this collaborative effort, Massachusetts residents applying for or renewing their MassHealth benefits online can now easily initiate a SNAP application. This is an important step forward in advancing healthy food access and health equity in the state.
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Legislators learn how communities support healthy aging
The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative (MHAC), a statewide network advancing inclusive age- and dementia friendly communities, held a briefing for legislators and staff at the Massachusetts State House in March 2023. State Senator Patricia D. Jehlen and State Representative Thomas M. Stanley – co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs – hosted the event, which included an update on the age- and dementia friendly movement. Commissioner Emily Shea, who leads the City of Boston’s AgeStrong, presented alongside representatives from AARP Massachusetts, 2Life Communities, Mass. Coalition for the Homeless and Mass. Public Health Association.
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MaineHealth Food Pantry building stronger, healthier communities
The MaineHealth Food Pantry at Maine Medical Center, with support from the Foundation, collaborates with immigrant-led organizations to improve food security by increasing access to culturally appropriate food and provide assistance in a variety of languages. The food pantry plays an important role in MaineHealth’s mission to work together so its communities are the healthiest in America. Good Shepherd Food Bank, another Foundation grantee, is a partner is this initiative.
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Responding to LGBT elders
Older LGBT people face unique challenges. With our support, Jamaica Plain-based Ethos can do more to change that paradigm.
When life gives you lemons, make garden kits
At least that’s what the executive director of Keney Park Sustainability Project did when COVID knocked out his volunteer program.
Reimagining aging in the Granite State
A state-level commission will promote healthy aging in communities across New Hampshire. Three critical elements helped make it happen.
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Learn more about mobile farmers' markets
Hear from Mill City Grows in Lowell, Massachusetts and the Regional Environmental Council in Worcester, Massachusetts about how mobile farmers’ markets bring healthy, affordable food options to underserved communities.
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Rhode Island gubernatorial candidates respond to aging policy questions
At an August 3, 2022, forum organized by the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island and 17 cosponsoring organizations, Rhode Island’s six gubernatorial candidates responded to questions focused on older adult priorities and addressed their plans to fix the states’ fragmented long-term care continuum. Photo courtesy of the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island.
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Older Adult Behavioral Health Network reflects on impactful first year
After the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to the risks associated with untreated behavioral health conditions among older adults, the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health (MAMH) launched the Older Adult Behavioral Health Network. Rooted in the grassroots advocacy of the Massachusetts Aging and Mental Health Coalition, the network works to improve the lives of older adults and support community living through advocacy, workforce development, and public education. Read about what they’ve accomplished in their first year.
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Addressing health inequities with nutritious food
Gather New Haven hasn’t let COVID-19 interfere with its mission of bettering health outcomes for Connecticut residents, implementing safe delivery/contact-less pickup and virtual nutrition education options for program participants. Photo courtesy of Gather New Haven.
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Racial disparities too familiar to native communities
What Wabanaki Public Health did to be sure Indigenous communities in Maine had information to make informed decisions about getting vaccinated, and had access to COVID-19 vaccines. Photo courtesy of Wabanaki Public Health.
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Veggies from heaven
Seacoast Eat Local, home of New Hampshire’s first (and Foundation-supported) mobile market —SAMM— has continued to provide healthy food to families in need but with a twist this season. Photo courtesy of Seacoast Eat Local.
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Creating a culture of inclusion
How did Springfield, Mass., become the first city in the nation to apply for and receive three age-friendly designations? Three words: Time. Tenacity. And collaboration. Photo courtesy of Live Well Springfield.
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A sense of community and food to go
Residents of an affordable-housing community in Northampton, Mass., received boxes containing beautiful local fruits and veggies from the farms of Western Massachusetts plus household essentials to help them stay safe and stay healthy throughout the pandemic. Photo courtesy of Grow Food Northampton.
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Building economic security
The Massachusetts Senior Action Council celebrated a signature legislative victory: Governor Baker’s 2020 budget eases health care costs for 40,000 older people with low incomes. Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Senior Action Council.
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Hope Community Garden – a Roxbury treasure
Residents of “Madison Village”, a vibrant affordable-housing community in Roxbury, Mass., enjoy expanded healthy food, cooking and garden programs. Photo courtesy of Madison Park Development Corporation.
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Bridging generation gaps
Isolation can take its toll on older people—even affecting our health. In Central Falls, R.I., an intergenerational program works to change all that. Photo courtesy of LISC.
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