SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Health New England has awarded $80,000 in grants to non-profit organizations that work to advance youth health and well-being in Western Massachusetts. 

 

The company's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Grants went to 38 organizations in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties.

 

In Berkshire County these organizations were awarded funding:

 

Health New England's DEIB mission is to improve the health and lives of people as it applies to individuals of all races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and levels of ability. 

 

Health New England's DEIB Grants are designed to fund local non-profit organizations that focus on health equity and engage around at least one social determinant of health (SDOH). SDOHs are conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age that affect health, quality of life, and life expectancy. These conditions may include socioeconomic status, food insecurity, education, access to health care, safe housing, discrimination, violence, and trauma, etc.

 

Health New England focused this year's DEIB grants on youth health and well-being after a Springfield Public Schools Youth Health Survey revealed that more than four in ten surveyed eighth-grade students felt so sad or hopeless for two weeks or more that they stopped participating in some usual activities. The grant winners' programs and projects must also assist youths and adolescents gain what the World Health Organization's Adolescent Well-being Framework states they need to thrive: