Woonsocket to benefit from $600,000 health grant

Thundermist Health Center has won $600,000 a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to reduce high rates of illness, chronic disease and health disparities in Woonsocket.

“Roughly 75 percent of your health status is influenced by social, economic and environmental factors related to where you live. Living a healthy life is more likely when you are part of a community that promotes health and healthy choices,” said Neil D. Steinberg, the Foundation’s president and CEO.

Thundermist received the grant on behalf of the Woonsocket Health Equity Zone to expand health education at Woonsocket High School, ensure healthy food is available and affordable in every neighborhood and expand access to opioid treatment and recovery services among other services.

“Driven by upstream factors including poverty, food insecurity, a lack of access to healthy foods, transportation and affordable housing, Woonsocket is disproportionately affected by health disparities,” said Susan Jacobsen, Thundermist’s senior director of health equity initiatives. “Working with 25 Health Equity Zone partners, our goal is to transform the city’s neighborhoods into places where all children and families can succeed and thrive.”

The work will include doubling the number of hours that health education is taught at the high school, expanding the Farm Fresh RI farmers market at Thundermist and ensuring naloxone is widely available in order to treat opioid overdoses. Other partners include the Woonsocket YMCA, the Woonsocket Prevention Coalition and Woonsocket Head Start.

“Caring for health requires excellent clinical care and improvements to the social, environmental and economic conditions that drive poor outcomes. We aim to build a community where people are connected to each other and to the resources that will reinforce health and well-being,” said Jacobsen.

Thundermist is among six nonprofit organizations that will share a total of $3.6 in grants from the Foundation. Five of the six recipients work closely with the state Department of Health (RIDOH) through local Health Equity Zones such as the one in Woonsocket.

“By working to address the underlying factors in communities that have the great effects on health outcomes, these grant recipients and Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones are working to ensure that each and every Rhode Islander has an equal opportunity to live a long, full, healthy life,” said Nicole Alexander-Scott, RIDOH director. “We look forward to partnering with these organizations in the months and years to come on this critical work.”

ONE Neighborhood Builders in Providence, Progreso Latino in Central Falls, South County Health in South Kingstown, Thundermist HealthCenter of West Warwick and the Women’s Resource Center in Newport also received $600,000 grants.

The Foundation received 39 applications. The recipients were selected based on how well they brought together clinical and community-based organizations, engaged residents, proposed measuring outcomes and leveraged other funding or in-kind support.

“We sought place-based initiatives that will bring together partners with a shared vision and action plan to address social determinants of health,” said Steinberg.

The majority of the funding – $2.8 million – is from the Foundation’s Fund for a Healthy Rhode Island. The remaining $800,000 comes through the Foundation’s Healthy Lives Strategic Initiative budget.

The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Working with generous and visionary donors, the Foundation raised $38 million and awarded $43 million in grants to organizations addressing the state’s most pressing issues and needs of diverse communities in 2017. Through leadership, fundraising and grantmaking activities, often in partnership with individuals and organizations, the Foundation is helping Rhode Island reach its true potential. For more information, visit rifoundation.org.