Massachusetts Community Health & Healthy Aging Funds | Self-Assessment - Massachusetts Community Health & Healthy Aging Funds

This is an optional self-assessment to help you understand your eligibility and alignment with the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds priorities. This assessment is for educational purposes and designed to highlight resources that could strengthen your approach.

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1. Which funding stream are you interested in applying to?

2. Is your organization or group Massachusetts-based?

Yes

Only organizations based in Massachusetts are eligible are this funding opportunity.

3. Are you a Massachusetts-based non-profit 501(c)3 organization or groups with a 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, quasi-governmental organizations, and municipalities?

Yes

Hospitals, for-profit businesses, and colleges/universities are not eligible to apply as lead applicants but can participate as partners. Hospitals who have contributed DoN funds are not eligible to receive any funding.

4. Does your proposed approach focus on policy, systems, and environental approaches? 

Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change strategies are a way of making sustainable, lasting change within a community to support healthy environments and behaviors across populations. These strategies create or change infrastructure and modify the contexts in which people live to improve community conditions that promote health.

Yes

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PSE – 1

Great! Your focus on policy, systems, and environmental change aligns with the goals of this funding opportunity. These strategies are essential for addressing the root causes of health inequities and creating sustainable improvements in community health. Learn more about the difference between a program approach and PSE change approach.
By making changes to laws and rules and shaping enviroments, communities can go beyond providing programs and services to create long-lasting conditions so poeple can eat better and move more where they live, learn, work, and play.

By making changes to laws and rules and shaping enviroments, communities can go beyond providing programs and services to create long-lasting conditions so poeple can eat better and move more where they live, learn, work, and play.

The Funds provide grants to organizations that strive to address the root causes of health inequities through long-term changes. Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes are a way of making sustainable or lasting change within a community to make healthy choices practical and available to all residents. These changes can reduce racial, economic, social, and environmental inequities. Click here to learn more about the difference between a program approach and PSE change approach. By making changes to laws and rules and shaping environments, communities can go beyond providing programs and services to create long-lasting conditions so people can eat better and move more where they live, learn, work, and play.

By making changes to laws and rules and shaping environments, communities can go beyond providing programs and services to create long-lasting conditions so people can eat better and move more where they live, learn, work, and play.

5. Are you addressing health equity through your approach?

Yes

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HE – 1

A clear focus on health equity is central to this funding opportunity. Prioritizing equity ensures your work helps remove barriers to health and supports communities most impacted by health disparities.

Resource: HRiA has developed a health equity framework that considers our specific work with communities, partners, and awardees.
Resource: CDC What is Health Equity

This funding opportunity prioritize approaches that have a clear focus on equity. Equity can be defined as everyone having a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. To achieve this, we must remove obstacles to health – such as poverty, discrimination, and deep power imbalances. The Funds prioritize populations with high rates of health inequities and proposed approaches that are intentional about addressing health inequities through community-centered policy, systems, and environmental change approaches.

Resource: HRiA has developed a health equity framework that considers our specific work with communities, partners, and awardees.
Resource: CDC What is Health Equity

6. Is your work community-centered, community-engaged and/or community-led?

Yes

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Community – 1

Centering the voices, leadership, and lived experiences of community members is essential to advancing meaningful and lasting change.

Resources: Public Participation Spectrum & Community Commons Getting Started Engaging People with Lived Experience

Centering the voices of the population served is a priority of this funding opportunity. Community can be defined broadly, both geographically or population-based, among people with shared identities, affiliations, and affinities. Strong community engagement can strengthen relationships, build trust, and co-develop effective solutions. One model for thinking about community engagement activities is the public participation spectrum.

Resources: Public Participation Spectrum & Community Commons Getting Started Engaging People with Lived Experience

7. Do you or will you address social determinants of health (SDoH)?

Yes

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SDoH – 1

Addressing social determinants of health is a key priority of this funding opportunity. Tackling the conditions where people live, work, learn, and play is essential to achieving health equity and long-term impact. Please review this resource on Social determinants of health for further context.

Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people live their everyday lives including where we are born, live, learn, work, worship, and play. They are important to address as they account for significant variation in health outcomes.

8. Have you identified the health outcomes that your approach could impact/improve?

The Funds places emphasis on the connections between the tree’s leaves, branches, trunk, and roots to develop effective upstream approaches to addressing negative health outcomes and health inequities. Recognizing the addressment of social determinants of health and root causes of health impact the trajectory of health outcomes

illustration of a tree with determinants in the leaves and root causes at the roots — (Health EquiTREE model)

Using the Health EquiTREE model, consider the elements your approach relates to or could have impact on (you can use words not included in the tree visual, they are given as examples)

Yes

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Outcomes – 1

The health tree metaphor and the importance of shared language – HRiA

Identifying potential health outcomes strengthens your proposal and demonstrates alignment with the Fund’s upstream approach to change. Using models like the Health EquiTREE helps clarify how your work addresses root causes and creates lasting health improvements.

The health tree metaphor and the importance of shared language – HRiA

The Funds emphasize understanding how your work connects to health outcomes and the root causes of health inequities. We encourage you to explore the Health EquiTREE model to identify where your approach may have impact and how it aligns with upstream, equity-centered strategies.

9. Does your approach consider the structural and institutional barriers that impact your community's health?

Yes

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Barriers – 1

Recognizing and addressing structural and institutional barriers is essential to advancing health equity. This aligns with the Fund’s commitment to disrupting systemic inequities that contribute to poor health outcomes in communities. Please review this resource on Structural and institutional racism for further context.

This funding opportunity funds organizations that address structural and institutional racism and other forms of oppression. These forms of oppression need to be understood and disrupted to eliminate inequities in population health outcomes and the social determinants of health (SDoH).

10. Are you still interested or planning on applying for Community Health Improvement Planning (CHIP) funding stream?

A community health improvement plan (CHIP) is a long-term, systematic effort to address public health problems based on the results of community health assessment activities and a community health improvement process. This plan is used by health, human service, and governmental organizations, in collaboration with community partners, to establish priorities and align resources. A community health improvement plan is critical for developing policies and defining actions to prioritize efforts that promote health.

Yes

Consider applying for a different funding stream. Go back to the first question and change your response.

10. Are you still interested or planning on applying for Healthy Aging Funding Stream?

Yes

Consider applying for a different funding stream. Go back to the first question and change your response.

11. Does your approach focus on 1 or more of the Eight Domains of Livability?

Yes

To be eligible for the Healthy Aging funding stream, your approach must focus on at least one of the Eight Domains of Livability. These domains are essential for supporting older adults in living healthy, engaged, and independent lives. We encourage you to explore how your work might align with one or more of these areas or consider applying for a different funding stream.

10. Are you still interested or planning on applying for Policy, Systems, and Enviromental Funding Stream?

Yes

11. Is your approach designed to create or continue lasting change by influencing policies, systems, or environments in your community?

This may include changes to laws, institutional practices, organizational procedures, or physical and social environments that impact health of identified priority population.

Yes

Approaches that aim to influence policies, systems, or environments are well-aligned with the goals of this funding stream. These strategies are essential for creating sustainable, community-wide improvements in health and equity.

The PSE funding stream prioritizes approaches that go beyond individual programs to create long-term change through policy, systems, or environmental strategies. Click here to learn more about the difference between a program approach and PSE change approach.

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Total Yes

If you answered yes to all or most of the questions above, your approach is aligned with the Funds’ priorities. We look forward to reviewing your idea submission.

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