Chelmsford Police Receive Greater Lowell Health Alliance Award Grant

The Greater Lowell Health Alliance (GLHA) of the Community Health Network Area 10 has awarded nine grants totaling $200,000 to community-based organizations to address critical health issues in the Greater Lowell area, including one to the town of Chelmsford.

The Chelmsford Police Department and the Tewksbury Police Department each received a $7,500 grant to fund the collaborative substance use and prevention weeks by the departments as they continue the work of fighting the increasing drug epidemic in their communities.

Grants were awarded around the priority areas of mental health, substance abuse, diabetes, obesity, respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), cardiovascular disease, and Hepatitis B in the Cambodian community.

Preference was given to projects that serve low-income, vulnerable, and/or at-risk communities.

These funds are part of $5 million being allocated to the GLHA by Lowell General Hospital over the next 14 years through the hospital’s Determination of Need process for its recent campus expansion. This process through the Department of Public Health ensures that hospitals are providing a measurable community benefit to the communities they serve.

“As an organization solely dedicated to improving the quality of health in the communities we serve, we are very pleased to put these funds into the hands of the outstanding front-line organizations that make a difference in the overall health in our communities,” said Kerrie D’Entremont, GLHA Executive Director.

GLHA – comprised of healthcare providers, business leaders, educators, civic and community leaders – plays a critical role in helping individuals and organizations collaboratively improve the health of Greater Lowell region. By raising awareness and providing resources for community organizations, the Alliance empowers them to make decisions and take actions that will lead to an improvement in the region’s health.

Below is the list of the other grant recipients, award amount and a brief description of their projects:

Lowell Community Health Center – Lowell in Motion ($50,000)

The project will reach 500 Lowell residents, both children and adults, many of whom are low-income and represent Lowell’s cultural and ethnic diversity. Key strategies include:

Healthy Markets

The goal of Healthy Markets is to improve access and affordability of healthy food options for Lowell residents by increasing the number of convenience stores participating in the healthy neighborhood market program. Since July 2011, Lowell Mass in Motion has worked to increase the number of convenience stores that offer and promote healthy food and beverages. To date, six Lowell convenience stores have joined the initiative and have worked with Mass in Motion participants to sell high-quality fresh fruits, vegetables, healthy beverages, whole grain products, low-fat and skim dairy products, and healthy snacks for children, as well as display healthy foods prominently in the store, label and promote healthy items, and keep prices of healthy foods as affordable as possible by participating in the WIC and SNAP programs.

Complete Streets

The goal of Complete Streets is to improve the health of all 105,519 residents within 11 neighborhoods of the City of Lowell who are disproportionately low income, by advocating, educating, and transforming Lowell’s built environment to be more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. The Lowell in Motion program will implement a city-wide initiative to improve the city’s built environment to increase access and availability of transportation options that are compatible for all users of all ages, including motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. The purpose is to promote increased exercise and physical activity among Lowell residents by making walking and cycling a safer, easier, and more enjoyable experience.

School Nutrition

The goal of the School Nutrition strategy is to improve nutrition and physical activity for the 14,031 children enrolled in the Lowell Public Schools. Lowell in Motion will expand the ongoing School Nutrition initiative in the Lowell Public schools to incorporate other priority health issues, including increased physical education. The Lowell Public Schools can participate in the Lowell in Motion program if they develop and implement nutritional guidelines that exceed the minimum nutritional guidelines required by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MA DPH).

Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, Inc - Access to Services for Southeast Asian Youth ($50,000)

Wayside will improve accessibility of Community Service Agency services (CSA’s) as well as other necessary mental health services to Southeast Asian families who might need them. The model will do this in three ways:

· It will incorporate significant outreach, education, and consultation to the many community providers and their staff that serve the population of Southeast Asian families—such as Lowell Community Health Center, The Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, the public schools, and the local Emergency Services Provider—helping them to better understand the services and providing clinical consultation to staff about specific youth with whom they are working.

· It will also incorporate the ability for increased flexibility in response to referrals, allowing the CSA staff to respond to referred families with an immediate face-to-face intervention and spending the amount of time necessary to fully describe the services and answer questions and allay family members’ fears about mental health services.

· Additionally, the model will allow Wayside, in some instances, to provide these services to families in need who do not have proper MassHealth insurance.

Under the proposed model, direct services will be provided by Wayside CSA’s culturally diverse team of Care Coordinators and Family Partners who are both bilingual—fluent in English and Khmer—and bi-cultural. Clinical consultation and education in the community will be delivered by an independently licensed social worker.

United Teen Equality Center, Inc - Preventing Substance Abuse to Help Youth Succeed ($20,000)

The funds will support UTEC’s goal to establish a permanent, part-time Substance Abuse Counselor position onsite at UTEC.

Mental health Association of Greater Lowell, Inc. - Outreach Specialist ($15,000)

The funds will support the hiring of a master’s level part-time Outreach Specialist to ensure that members of the community in need of mental health services are able to take full advantage of the mental health resources in the Greater Lowell area.

Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell - Hepatitis B education and screening for the Cambodian community of Lowell ($17,000)

The project will hold Hepatitis B education sessions, as well as offering one-on-one screenings and referrals.

University of Massachusetts Lowell - Healthy Homes for Child Care ($20,000)

The project aims to reduce asthma exacerbation in young children by providing interventions and education to families in Lowell that suffer from asthma, with the goal to improve the health of Lowell’s residents and reduce the burden of asthma in this community. The target population for the proposed project is children age 0-5 from low-income families that attend center-based early education programs through Community Teamwork, Inc. (CTI).

Bridgewell, Inc. - Pathfinder Outreach Project ($13,000)

The Pathfinder Outreach Project will provide outreach and health-focused case management services to individuals living in homeless encampments found throughout the city.