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Community Health Center Special Projects Grant

The Community Health Center Special Projects Grants application cycle is NOW CLOSED.

The League manages a Community Health Center Special Projects Grants for primary care providers through the generosity of Partners HealthCare, Inc. It was developed to assist centers in the retention and professional development of providers at community health centers by providing funding to support qualified and approved projects that match the clinical or career interest of selected providers and the programmatic needs of the Health Center.

The deadline was May 1, 2017.

In 2016, the funding made available by this grant will assist up to 6 community health centers in offering paid designated employment time for a primary care provider (or group of providers) to undertake the special projects, mini-fellowships or international health experiences. The grant may be used for salary, fringe benefits and tax expenses, and other direct costs of the projects as defined in the RFP. All applications will be required to have a 15% contribution from their respective health center and may request up to a combined $40,000 for the proposed project. For instance, an application with a total project budget of $40,000 may request $34,000 to be awarded by the League and $6,000 to be contributed by the CHC. CHC contributions may be in-kind, capital purchases, and other direct expenses associated with the completion of the proposed project. The grant period is one year, and projects, fellowships, and international health experiences need to be initiated and completed during the year (July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018).

To access the Application Materials, click below:

In 2016, seven (7) primary care providers and their health centers were awarded grants to support paid designated employment time to undertake the special projects or mini-fellowships. The 2016 Community Health Center Special Projects Grant recipients are:

  • Allison Sherwood, FNP-BC
    Charles River Community Health
    "Improving the Quality of LGBT healthcare"
    This project will target Charles River Community Health staff along with the community at large by improving the health centers ability to deliver care in a culturally competent and sensitive manner to the already vulnerable community. Ms. Sherwood will be improving her knowledge base and working to disseminate the information learned by presenting to other clinic staff. She will advocate as a provider champion in the area of LGBT healthcare delivery and tailor current standards of care to CRCH. The project will enable her to pursue the long term goal of establishing CRCH as an LGBT friendly resource in the community.
  • Rachel Hindin, MD
    Codman Square Health Center
    "Practice Transformation: Integrating PCMH Principles into Internal Medicine Resident Practice"
    This grant will support Dr. Hindin's goal to transform the internal medicine residency training program practice into a residency practice that is in keeping with the principles of the patient centered medical home. She will work to develop and institute a new paradigm for the internal medicine resident practice that is focused on team-based care and practice transformation, thereby improving the experience for patients and internal medicine residents at CSHC. Work will also be done to enhance the residents' education in the social determinants of health.
  • Ivy Brackup, MD
    DotHouse Health
    "Increasing Resiliency to Improve Well-Being and Decrease Burnout in Health Center Providers"
    The goal of this project is to provide a program at DotHouse to increase resiliency and decrease burnout in providers. This program will be based on the Mindful Communication Program at the University of Rochester and would include a wellness curriculum (mindfulness and self-awareness exercises), as well as training in communication skills, and additional areas that have been shown to increase resiliency. Dr. Brackup's goal of this project is to improve DotHouse Health physician/provider well-being and to increase happiness and satisfaction in their practice of medicine.
  • Jordana Weil Price, MD
    Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center
    "Redefining Chronic Pain"
    As the opioid crisis reaches more people and an increasing number of patients with chronic pain fill community health centers, providers struggle to find a balance to adequately treat a patient's pain without overprescribing. With this grant, Dr. Weil Price will address that struggle and the risk of under-treatment of chronic pain by creating a controlled substances program so CHC's can better screen, identify, and assess if opioid pain medication is working and/or if other modalities of treating pain would better address the patient's pain.
  • Christopher Bositis, MD
    Greater Lawrence Family Health Center
    "Expanding primary care access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxix (PrEP)"
    The use of antiretroviral medication to prevent new HIV infections in patients at risk has been shown to be highly effective, however lack of familiarity with this approach among both patients and providers has limited its uptake at the GLFHC. With this grant, Dr. Bositis will develop clinical protocols and EHR forms to make it easier for clinicians to identify appropriate PrEP candidates and initiate PrEP. Dr. Bositis and other key team members will implement strategies to reach high risk groups, and establish a PrEP panel management system to track key clinical indicators and ensure that PrEP is being prescribed safely and effectively to reduce the burden of HIV in the GLFHC community.
  • Liz O'Dair, MD
    Holyoke Health Center
    "Acupuncture for Acute and Chronic Pain Management"
    The grant will support an 8 month mini-fellowship at Harvard University's International Structural Acupuncture course for Physicians for Dr. O'Dair. Through this mini-fellowship, Dr. O'Dair will initiate a comprehensive pain management program for HHC patients who have thus far been provided with usual care, consisting of medication and follow up appointments. The goal of this program is to create consistent and appropriate opioid prescribing practices for the health center as a whole, as well as provide appropriate and evidence-based treatment alternatives, and to give guidance and support to providers as they care for chronic pain patients.
  • Sara Utzschneider, NP
    Lynn Community Health Center
    "Lynn CHC LGBTQ Clinic"
    This project will support the work of a multidisciplinary committee at LCHC to design, develop, and implement a clinic to improve access to care for underserved LGBTQ population in the North Shore. Ms. Utzschneider and her committee will work on improving access, decreasing barriers to providing care for LGBTQ within LCHC, professional development of the committee members, and provider retention. The committee strives to improve their own clinical knowledge on LGBTQ health needs, train LCHC staff, and implement a new LBGTQ clinic at LCHC in a sensitive, comprehensive and intentional manner.
For a summary list of other CHC Special Project grant recipients, click below:

For additional information on the League's RFP process, contact Jessica Saad, the League's Clinical Health Affairs Coordinator.