Essex High School students raised over $500 for this year's Spectrum Sleep Out.Spectrum Youth Services of Burlington was a grant recipient. Spectrum photo.
Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center is investing $1.4 million in a broad range of social service and community health programs in Chittenden and Franklin counties through its Community Health Investment Fund. Grants have been awarded to innovative programs that address critical health problems such as opioid dependency, mental health, food insecurity and homelessness, among other issues.
Funding priorities are informed by findings in the 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) conducted by the UVM Medical Center in collaboration with a community steering group. Funding decisions are made by the UVM Medical Center’s Community Health Investment Committee, which includes hospital employees and community members.
Programs supported by the Community Health Investment Fund and other sources in FY 2017 include:
- Housing for chronically homeless individuals who also have serious health issues.
(Champlain Housing Trust)
- A collaborative approach among social service and health care organizations, public safety officials and the City of Burlington to address the opioid crisis.
(Chittenden County Opioid Alliance)
- Supporting parents in treatment for opiate dependency.
(Howard Center)
- An online course in suicide prevention and mental health promotion in Vermont schools.
(Center for Health and Learning)
- Helping people manage chronic conditions after home health services have ended.
(Visiting Nurses Association)
- Using a food truck to provide hot meals and groceries to under-served communities.
(Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf)
“This annual grant program embodies our mission to work with organizations of all kinds to improve people’s lives,” said Eileen Whalen, RN, MHA, president and chief operating officer of the UVM Medical Center. “We’re proud to partner with fellow non-profit community organizations doing such vital and excellent work.”
“Because medical care accounts for just a fraction of a person’s health status, it’s critical that we address broader factors like nutrition, housing and substance abuse treatment,” said Penrose Jackson, director of Community Health Improvement at the UVM Medical Center. “We’re confident these investments will make a positive impact, and we hope that the pilot programs will yield effective strategies that can be widely shared.”
The grants are part of more than $100 million in community benefits provided by the UVM Medical Center each year, including charity care. The Medical Center has been making grants of this type since the 1980s.
Community Health Investment Fund FY17
Collective Impact Grants
Beacon Apartments, $100,000
Beacon Apartments, part of the Building Homes Together Campaign, provides 19 permanent supportive housing units and wrap around services to the area’s most medically-vulnerable chronically homeless individuals. The Community Health Centers of Burlington serves as the backbone agency.
Chittenden County Opioid Alliance, $100,000
The Chittenden County Opioid Alliance’s vision for change is to reduce the burden of opiate use disorders in Chittenden County using a Collective Impact approach that will improve public health and public safety outcomes. The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission serves as the backbone agency.
Partnership for a Hunger Free Grand Isle County, $75,000
The shared vision of this collaboration is to address the high levels of hunger and food insecurity in Grand
Isle County by establishing and expanding nutrition programs available to eligible residents through the integrated
work of its partner organizations. Hunger Free Vermont serves as the backbone agency.
Who’s Your Person, What’s Your Plan, $45,000
The collaborative will mobilize a broad-based, street level campaign that normalizes conversations about death and dying, and provides opportunities for citizens to discuss and document their preferred end of life care. Vermont Ethics Network serves as the backbone agency.
Emerging Need Grant
Community Health Centers of Burlington, Warming Shelter, $15,000
Funds were used to extend the Warming Shelter operations for 18-days. The Warming Shelter is a low-barrier shelter in Burlington.
Federally Qualified Health Center Grant
Community Health Centers of Burlington, Medical Sliding Fee, $100,000
Grant funds are used to support the Patient Assistance Program, which offers a full array of support services available to all CHCB patients and community residents in need of access to care and financial assistance programs.
One-Time Investment Grants
Center for Health and Learning, Online Mental Health Resource, $50,000
CHL’s Online Mental Health Resource Project will offer an online course in suicide prevention and mental health promotion at Vermont schools. The course is designed to train professionals and identify colleagues and youth in their school with risk factors and warning signs for suicide
Spectrum Youth Services, Detail Works, $75,000
One Stop Detail Shop is a new social enterprise car detailing business for youth ages 16-26 to gain skills and practical work experience in a supportive environment while earning a paycheck.
Turning Point, Building the Infrastructure for Recovery, $115,000
Grant funds will be used as a 1:1 match for Turning Point’s capital campaign for the purchase of a building.
Vermont Association for Mental Health & Addiction Recovery, Camp Daybreak, $36,252
These grant funds will be used for one-time costs involved in the relocation of Camp Daybreak, a residential mental health program which serves Vermont youth.
Program Grants
ANEW Place, 4-Phase Continuum of Care, $50,000
ANEW’s 4-Phase Continuum of Care provides shelter to homeless adults, providing holistic support and life-skill development to build a foundation with the tools to succeed.
Burlington Housing Authority, Housing Retention & Rapid Rehousing, $50,000
The Housing Retention Team supports tenants at risk of losing their housing due to medical, mental health, and substance abuse issues, domestic violence or due to hoarding.
Centerpoint, Project Checkpoint, $42,000
Checkpoint is a screening and brief intervention program designed for students struggling with substance abuse.
Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, Good Food Truck, $30,000
The Good Food Truck programs are designed to fight food insecurity and hunger among under-served communities by providing hot meals and groceries through the use of a full service food truck.
Howard Center, Piggy Back Project, $24,699
This project will provide parenting support, education and resource development to parents in treatment at the Chittenden Clinic for opiate-use disorder.
Howard Center, Street Outreach Project, $40,000
The Street Outreach Team puts mental health clinicians “on the street” in downtown Burlington to work with individuals needing mental health services, as well as outreaching with merchants, police, and the general public.
Kidsafe Collaborative, Children and Recovering Mothers Team (CHARM), $19,000
CHARM is a multi-disciplinary coalition of health and social service providers that work to improve health and safety outcomes of babies born to pregnant women with a history of opiate dependence.
Pathways Vermont, Housing First, $48,600
Using the evidence-based practice of Housing First, this program supports individuals with histories of chronic homelessness to access and maintain affordable housing.
Salvation Farms, Vermont Commodity Program, $45,000
The Vermont Commodity Program moves unsold but wholesome Vermont grown crops through a cleaning, packing, and processing operation run by workforce development trainees to reduce food loss on farms, build a skilled workforce, and increase the use of locally grown foods by some of the state’s more vulnerable residents.
Spectrum Youth Services, Basic Needs and Stable Homes, $18,000
Basic Needs and Stable Homes programs address the most fundamental needs of homeless and marginally housed youth ages 14-24, for shelter, food, safety, and connection to community resources.
Turning Point, Recovery Peer Support Worker Initiative, $25,000
The Recovery Peer Support Initiative supports peer staff to work with people in early recovery to assist with information and referrals, housing and employment searches and provide additional support as needed.
Vermont Association for Mental Health & Addiction Recovery, Burlington Recovery Team, $42,225
The Burlington Recovery Team is a training program focused on recovery workforce development that pairs Vermonters in long-term recovery with people in early recovery to act as role models and trainers.
Vermont Community Garden Network, Growing Food, Growing Community, $41,450
Growing Food, Growing Community at Housing Sites develops and supports gardens and food and garden education at affordable/low-income housing sites.
Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, The Health Care Share, $43,176
The Health Care Share is a network of farmers, health professionals, non-profit organizations, youth corps members and volunteers who provide food-insecure families with local food, nutrition education, health and wellness coaching, and job training.
Visiting Nurse Association, Family Room, $25,000
Funds support for the continuum of early intervention programming which helps at-risk moms develop and sustain nurturing relationships with their children. Programs include Early Months; Crawlers, Waddlers and Toddlers; and Strong Families.
Visiting Nurse Association, Longitudinal Care Pilot for High Risk Patients, $46,928
This pilot will extend support and chronic care management to high risk patients, after their home health episode ends.
United Way of Northwest Vermont Sponsorship
United Way of Northwest Vermont, $100,000
Funds support a variety of programming that align with one or more of the five community needs identified in the UVM Medical Center’s 2016 community health needs assessment: Access to Healthy Food, Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Supportive Housing.
About the University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a 447-bed tertiary care regional referral center providing advanced care to approximately 1 million residents in Vermont and northern New York. Together with our partners at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, we are Vermont’s academic medical center.The University of Vermont Medical Center also serves as a community hospital for approximately 150,000 residents in Chittenden and Grand Isle counties.
Source: (Burlington, VT) The University of Vermont Medical Center 5.17.2017. For more information on any of these programs, please contact Julie Cole at [email protected] or at 802-847-8929.