A Collaborative Effort to Address Female Genital Cutting and Advance Racial and Health Equity
[Cambridge, MA, September 23, 2024] The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) has announced the 2024 awards of the Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds (the Funds). As part of these awards, DPH, the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA), and the implementing partner Health Resources in Action, Inc., will join with Sahiyo U.S. and 26 other organizations across Massachusetts and more than 40 of their community partners, including non-profit community-based organizations, municipalities, and coalitions. All of these organizations, including Sahiyo U.S. have committed to leading efforts to address the root causes of health inequities by disrupting systemic barriers to health and tackling institutional and structural racism head-on. During the pandemic, the need to support such efforts is even more imperative.
In total ~$15.8M in grants will support 26 lead organizations and more than 40 of their partner organizations implementing strategies, ultimately impacting 458 cities and towns across the state. Sahiyo U.S. has partnered with the U.S. End FGM/C Network and UMass Chan Medical School Collaborative in Health Equity to develop systems of care and response for the prevention of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and support for survivors in Massachusetts.
Sahiyo U.S. Co-Founder and Executive Director, Mariya Taher, expresses her excitement about this initiative and the work ahead, “FGM/C is such an unaddressed issue in Massachusetts, let alone the United States. We’re excited about this project, because the funding allows us to really address this issue by providing us the capacity and time to gather those who are impacted by FGM/C and/or who work with impacted communities throughout the state and create a real community-based solution on how to address this topic, and how we can build a collaborative approach to both support survivors and work towards prevention of FGM/C amongst future generations.
The goal of The Funds is to work with community partners to disrupt barriers to health, increase awareness, and address the impact of structural racism on population health, and create long-term, meaningful changes in population health outcomes.
The Funds invest in initiatives in three core areas of focus including:
- Working on long-lasting, community-driven policy, systems, and environmental changes that will make it easier to lead healthy lives and which will reduce health inequities such as racial patterns of segregation in communities and a lack of affordable housing production;
- Organizing and coordinating Community Health Improvement Planning efforts which convene multi-sector partnerships to collectively set and address community health goals, and;
- Working to address policies and systems that increase opportunities for healthy aging.
Recognizing the complex ways in which systems impact health, the investments will support a wide range of activities across the Commonwealth. Sahiyo U.S. aims to build a comprehensive network of stakeholders and service providers to implement a coordinated, systems-based approach to address how FGM/C is treated in Massachusetts; facilitate equitable access to healing and improve health outcomes for survivors of FGM/C, with a special focus on people of color; and prevent FGM/C among future generations by increasing resources to disrupt barriers such as lack of awareness among service providers regarding FGM/C and connected social issues.
U.S. End FGM/C Network Executive Director, Caitlin LeMay shares, “This is an opportunity to engage in longer-term, intentional, cross-sectoral systems change that will directly reduce health inequities for survivors of FGM/C in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the very state where I call home. Being able to approach this work through various systems and different strategies, including healthcare provider training, policy advocacy, coalition building, increasing service delivery, and more, is really exciting.”
The Massachusetts Community Health and Healthy Aging Funds were created in January 2017 when DPH completed a landmark revision of its Determination of Need (DoN) regulation, which authorized the creation of these Funds. DPH provides overall guidance to the Funds and Health Resources in Action, Inc. acts as a fiduciary and implementing partner. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) partners with DPH to support the Healthy Aging Fund.
More information about the Funds can be found at https://mahealthfunds.org/.