From the outset, leaders running the Worcester Together nonprofit fund envisioned three phases spanning emergency, intermediate and longer-term needs for area agencies.
Almost a year after the coronavirus pandemic hit, the fund has now given $1 million in its third and final phase, which it calls Reimagining, with a goal of helping organizations plan for the future after the health crisis. Six groups got funding that the Worcester Together fund announced Wednesday:
Legendary Legacies, Inc.: $125,000 for creating a youth-led civic engagement academy to increase voter registration and turnout among 18-25 year olds.
Pernet Family Health Service: $150,000 for providing in-home neonatal visits for all Worcester parents.
Worcester Together awards $1 million in Reimagining Grants; 6 nonprofits benefit
WORCESTER Six local nonprofits will share $1 million in Reimagining Grants from the Worcester Together Fund.
The fund is a joint effort between the Greater Worcester Community Foundation and the United Way of Central Massachusetts. It works in partnership with the city.
In the last year, Worcester Together has provided over $10.6 million to assist Central Massachusetts nonprofits that work to help families facing issues such as lost income, unstable housing, food insecurity and more.
The Reimagining Grants are the fund’s final phase of grant making and were designed to encourage local leaders to step back from the immediate consequences of a social issue and address the root causes. The scale of these grants, at over $100,000 each, will position organizations to make lasting and fundamental changes,” said GWCF President and CEO Barbara Fields.
Living laboratory will address global issues in student collaboration between Worcester and Africa
WORCESTER Despite the city’s flower beds being entombed in a frozen crust, the Indian Lake Community Association is looking forward to start phase one of its “Community Teaching Garden Literacy Project.”
The association was planning to complete phase one Saturday, Feb. 13, but Mother Nature had other plans. They are now shooting for March 13, the one year anniversary of the Commonwealth-wide shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The site of the garden will be on West Boylston Drive on the parcel of land that was part of the West Boylston Drive Barrier Wall replacement project, Carl Gomes, president of the Indian Lake Community Association Inc., said.
Telegram & Gazette
WORCESTER Ten community-based organizations in Berkshire, Middlesex and Worcester counties will benefit from $100,000 in grants made by Fallon Health to help with COVID-19 recovery.
The grants support agencies that assist populations that are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity as a result of the pandemic or that provide services to seniors to help them overcome or mitigate social isolation.
The following organizations have received funding: Community Harvest Project’s Healthy Hunger Relief to Minimize COVID-19 Community Impact in Grafton, Pernet Family Health Services’ Meeting the Most Basic Needs of Worcester’s At-Risk Families program in Worcester, Regional Environmental Council’s Growing Community Food Security through Worcester Urban Farming in Worcester, Spanish American Center’s Reaching Out to Elders in the Age of COVID program in Leominster, Genesis Club House, Inc’s Mental Health Support for Seniors in Worcester, United Way of Tri-
Six Worcester agencies have won a share of more than $3 million in funding from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation to improve healthcare services.
The grants, which the Boston insurer s philanthropic arm announced Thursday, include $200,000 for UMass Memorial Health Care s Community Healthlink to improve access to behavioral health urgent care and $45,000 each to the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center and the Family Health Center of Worcester for helping eligible consumers obtain health insurance coverage.
In other funding, the Community Builders, a nonprofit with local offices in Boston, received $75,000 for helping address what s known as social determinants of health: challenges that can include poverty and a lack of access to education, child care or transportation. Three other agencies the Family Health Center of Worcester, the Regional Environmental Council and the YWCA Central Massachusetts each obtained between $12,500 and $15,096 for special