Three health groups celebrate first-time Community Benefits grants

Every year, Cape Cod Healthcare provides numerous Community Benefits grants to local organizations and advocacy groups that work to enhance the quality and access to healthcare services.

To understand the needs, Cape Cod Healthcare (CCHC) does a Community Health Needs Assessment every three years. This assessment helps CCHC focus on the unmet needs of the financially disadvantaged and underserved populations, as well as projects that promote disease prevention, wellness and access to care.

“It is gratifying to see that the number of applicants for our competitive grants process has expanded so much over the past few years and we are pleased to support those organizations that have the most impact on our friends and neighbors who call the Cape home,” said Jennifer Cummings, CCHC associate director of development and community benefits.

This year CCHC provided 30 grants to local organizations, including three that received grants for the first time.

“One of our objectives in the competitive grants process is to attract new applicants every year so that as many Cape Codders as possible benefit from our Community Benefits program,” Cummings said. “The three organizations that are receiving grant funds for the first time are a great example of forging strong partnerships being an important element of a true community health system”.

Here is more information on these three groups.

Calmer Choice

Calmer Choice is a school-based mindfulness program that includes programs for children and those who support them to have access to evidence-based mindfulness education, training and mentorship. They work in classrooms and community spaces to enhance wellbeing through mindfulness meditation. Their programs include an 8-week classroom program, mindfulness coaches, mindfulness circles and one-on-one mindful mentorship.

“Calmer Choice believes that we all possess an inner wisdom around what is required for us to feel safe, happy and whole,” said Executive Director Sarah Manion. “We also know that our modern lives can lead us to forget or become disconnected from that awareness. Mindfulness is the practice we use to reconnect with the inner capacities needed for all of us to feel capable of leading lives of kindness and compassion.”

The Community Benefits grant will help the group ensure broad access to their classroom program through significant subsidies so they can continue existing programing. It will also enable the group to begin new program development, such as their Mindfulness Circle elective for middle and high school kids, Manion said. They are also investing in curriculum development so their program can engage all students, including those with diverse language and learning considerations.

“Additionally, we aim to broaden mental wellness support to the employees of critical child-focused service providers in our community,” she said. “We know that the local need for social-emotional health on Cape far exceeds the resources available. By supporting the adults who support our youth with staff wellness, retention and personal wellbeing, we know we can enhance the overall capacity of our community to care for itself.”

Mass Audubon Cape Cod

Mass Audubon Cape Cod is working with local partners to help young people engage with nature, especially those in historically underserved communities that lack access, said Assistant Director of Leadership Giving Lillie Peterson-Wirtanen.

“Everyone deserves to enjoy nature’s benefits—from clean air and water to shade and recreation - and studies have found that simply being in a natural environment, such as a Mass Audubon Sanctuary, or learning about wildlife and nature in their own school yards, can lower levels of cortisol in the body, reduce stress and anxiety, and provide opportunities for youth to immerse themselves in a calming environment,” she said.

Many local schools and families lack the resources that make it possible for them to access natural and environmental education. The Cape Cod Healthcare Community Benefits grant will support Mass Audubon Cape Cod’s educators as they deliver classroom and field-based programs to more than 4,000 students at 32 schools in Barnstable County, Peterson-Wirtanen said. The grant also supports educators as they teach STEM skills, conservation science and natural history.

Through year-round education programs, children can participate in activities including hiking, birding, nature journaling and simply getting outside to be active in fun and engaging ways.

“Our programs are accessible, culturally responsive, and flexibly designed to respond to the needs of students while immersing them in the health and wellness benefits of nature, such as improved mental health, reduced stress and anxiety, increased physical activity, and stronger cognitive function,” Peterson-Wirtanen said.

Nauset Interfaith Association’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Action Team

The MLK Action Team is the racial justice arm of Nauset Interfaith Association. They work to address issues of exclusion, marginalization and economic and health inequities faced by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) on Cape Cod.

“The MLK Action Team is invested in building greater racial justice and health equity by developing deeply sustainable relationships across our communities through a range of conversations and programs,” said Deborah Ullman, who is a board member of Nauset Interfaith Alliance and a member of the MLK Action Team. “This incorporates the study and recognition of the unfolding effects of unresolved historic trauma on community health and well-being.”

The most recent community health needs assessment included a review of all-cause mortality among different races and ethnic groups. In that assessment, the American Indian/Alaska Native population had the highest rate of all-cause mortality per 100,000 people. The MLK Action Team would like to change that statistic by expanding on their 2023 program of “Building Relationship, Building Equity: Acknowledging Continued Wampanoag Presence” with a focus on health equity in 2024.

Their programs and initiatives will include elements of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and cultural prescriptions for community wellness based on education and building relationships between the Wampanoag and Aquinnah tribes and non-native residents and guests to the Cape, Ullman said. The programs and events focus on the innate ways that building relationships is the most powerful force for building equity. In other words, we need to know each other to know what the other needs and to make the right decisions to improve community wellness.

“The focus of the events will be on reaching people who work in healthcare, schools, and civic leadership positions including an emphasis on what non-Natives might learn from the sacred interdependence Native people maintain with the natural world,” she said.