Fallon Community Health Plan announces 2008 Community Benefits Grant recipients
More than $128,000 given to community-based programs
Worcester, Mass., September 25, 2008 ― Fallon Community Health Plan today announced recipients of its 2008 Community Benefits Grants. FCHP awarded more than $128,000 in grants to support innovative, community-based programs that provide preventive health and social services for children in the first three years of life or for at-risk youth between the ages of 12 and 19.
Grants have been awarded to the following organizations:
- Baby’s Breath, Inc. (Leicester): A grant of $20,000 was awarded to establish and maintain a transitional home for children who are 0-3 years of age and are entering the foster care system.
- Boys & Girls Club of Worcester (Worcester): A grant of $13,500 was awarded to support the Education & Technology Program to provide after-school education and technology programs for at-risk adolescents in the city.
- Home for Little Wanderers (Walpole): A grant of $20,000 was awarded to support the Agricultural Program at the Longview Farm residential treatment program to provide residents with structured outdoor activity and fresh vegetables for their meals.
- Massachusetts Citizens for Children (Boston): A grant of $25,000 was awarded to provide resources for the Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Initiative.
- Mohegan Council, Inc., Boy Scouts of America (Worcester): A grant of $10,000 was awarded to support The Urban Outreach Initiative to introduce children in underserved urban settings to Scouting.
- Wayside Youth & Family Support Network (Framingham): A grant of $20,000 was awarded to introduce “Holistic Health,” a new, on-going fitness and wellness program in the network’s residential and day programs that serve at-risk youth.
- Western Massachusetts Labor Action (Pittsfield): A grant of $20,000 was awarded to support the Development & Utility Advocacy Program to target the “working poor” households with children under the age of three in Berkshire County.
Every year, Fallon Community Health Plan awards Community Benefits Grants to new or existing programs that serve the targeted populations in Berkshire, Essex, Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, Norfolk, northern Bristol, Middlesex and Worcester counties.
“This year we received just under 60 proposals for consideration from many worthy organizations,” said Kate McEvoy-Zdonczyk, Director of Community and Government Relations, FCHP. “We’re excited about these programs because some link at-risk youth with structured physical activity and healthy eating, while other programs seek to provide advocacy and support to children in the first three years of life.”
Lauren M. Petit
lauren.petit@fchp.org
About FCHP
Founded in 1977, Fallon Community Health Plan provides health care services designed to meet the unique and changing needs of all we serve. FCHP is the only health plan in Massachusetts that is both an insurer and provider of care. Our product portfolio includes a variety of group and individual health plan options (HMO, POS, PPO, Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans) featuring flexible and innovative benefit designs. We administer fully-insured and self-insured funding arrangements with customized services for employers. Our uniquely developed provider networks offer high-quality, cost-effective, coordinated care and give our members access to doctors and hospitals throughout Massachusetts. We also offer a broad spectrum of services and programs to ensure our members, at every stage of life, remain as healthy and productive as possible. FCHP is a provider of care through its Summit ElderCare® program, an advanced and completely integrated program that offers seniors and their caregivers an alternative to nursing home placement. Our continued commitment to deliver high-quality health care and exceptional customer service has earned FCHP consistent ratings as one of the nation’s top health plans, and in 2007, placed our Medicare and Medicaid health plans as the best in the nation. FCHP is the only health plan in Massachusetts to have been awarded “Excellent” Accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Assurance for our HMO, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid products.