Health Equity

The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) was awarded a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 Health Equity grant to address the persistent and disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on populations at higher risk of health disparities.  Together, the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Community Foundation partnered to solicit and process applications from a wide variety of organizations during spring and summer 2022. We look forward to the positive impact the organizations will be making with the assistance of the grants.

The full list of the organizations that will receive the Health Equity awards includes:

  • Abenaki Helping Abenaki

Expand Abenaki projects to improve tribal citizens’ health outcomes, community engagement, and cultural preservation to build a more sustainable future for Abenaki people.

  • Aging in Hartland

Connect residents aged 60 plus to resources for more connection and support services as they age in their own homes in a community they love. Populations include seniors living in a rural area, some with disabilities, insecure housing, and/or living in poverty. 

  • All Brains Belong VT

Enhance care coordination, external trainings and advisement, and Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) training to support health services and community connection for neurodivergent Vermonters.

  • Bi-State Primary Care Association

Support Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and other safety-net providers with training and technical assistance on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) work.

  • Open Door Clinic

Provide mobile healthcare services with appropriate language support, particularly among the migrant farmworker population.

  • Come Alive Outside

Increase inclusion, access, and equity to the outdoors for underserved populations who face the highest health inequities.

  • Conscious Homestead

Enhance a BIPOC-led community care network to practice being givers and/or receivers of care. Conscious Homestead centers Indigenous wisdom and provides healing offerings from our hearts to one another in racial affinity.

  • Greater Falls Connections

Expand trauma-transformed initiatives to empower historically marginalized families in culturally relevant healing, restoring dignity, and centering their vision of community and belonging in the Windham County area.

  • Inner Space

Enhance health resources for people who have experienced systemic oppression and all those furthest from justice. Inner Space brings allopathic, ancestral, and communal healing together under one roof.

  • Janet S Munt Family Room

Provide a space that builds healthy, connected communities by supporting families and young children ages prenatal to 5 years old.

  • Maquam Bay of Missisquoi

Provide programming and resources to enhance culturally appropriate community health and wellness including food access, domestic violence programs, and COVID-19 recovery resources.

  • Orleans County Restorative Justice Center

Build capacity in regional organizations to include justice involved families or individuals in health planning, delivery, and outreach in Orleans and Northern Essex counties.

  • Out in the Open

Enhance a peer health advocacy program aimed at improving health outcomes for rural transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer Vermonters.

  • Outright Vermont

Boost resilience for Vermont’s LGBTQ+ youth by building connections across Vermont to create joyful, affirming, and accessible support.

  • Pride Center of Vermont

Address health needs of Vermont’s LGBTQ+ communities by building strong a network of healthcare providers and empowering LGBTQ+ Queer to peer health skill sharing.

  • Social Tinkering

Engage in strategic planning to bring a Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) framework in Rutland County to a statewide level.

  • Sunrise Family Resource Center

Support families in achieving transportation independence by addressing systematic and socioeconomic barriers to empower families in Bennington County to fully participate in their lives and community.

  • SUSU commUNITY Farm

An Afro Indigenous stewarded farm and land-based healing center aimed at elevating Vermont’s land and foodways through teaching, nourishing, growing healthy foods, healing in commUNITY, and caring for each other.

  • The Root Social Justice Center

Provide healing, wellness, and health-related resources and supports to meet the self-identified needs of the BIPOC community in and around Brattleboro, VT.

  • The Winooski Parents & Students Project

Enhance a community-based project led by immigrants, refugees, and New Americans from Nepal, Congo, Arabic, Burundi, and Somali serving their own communities in Winooski, Vermont.

  • United Way of Lamoille County

Optimize the use of local resources to reduce barriers to healthcare, employment, and community involvement through the Lamoille County Mobile Rural Resource Navigator initiative.

  • United Way of Windham County

Enhance equitable outcomes, identify and close disparity gaps, and enable stakeholder collaboration to further support refugee and asylum seekers across Windham County.

  • Vermont Cultural Brokering Program- Spectrum

Continue to train and employ refugee and immigrant community members as cultural brokers who provide culturally appropriate outreach, screenings, interventions, and referrals to improve health equity among Vermont’s various communities.

  • Vermont CARES

Enhance statewide harm reduction services for Vermonters living with HIV across a 35-year-old, AIDS Service Organization.

  • Vermont Developmental Disabilities Council

Improve health literacy among adults with developmental disabilities and increase provider confidence in delivering healthcare to VT’s developmental disability population.

  • Vermont Health Equity Initiative

Address mental health disparities by elevating local stories, sharing relevant data, and unifying institutions and community organizations in effort to improve BIPOC mental health.

  • Vermont Language Justice Project

Expand language justice in Vermont through partnerships, technical assistance, and the production and distribution of essential public health information in audio/video formats for Vermonters who are English Language Learners.

  • Vermont Racial Justice Alliance

Enhance health equity through the eradication of systemic racism in the health system by expanding programs and services to marginalized communities and create new, equitable systems that provide access to opportunity.

  • Vermont Psychiatric Survivors, Inc.

Build sustainable programming for mental health peer-to-peer support, education to health providers on bias and health equity, and enhance resources for peer self-advocacy.

  • Winooski Valley Park District

Enhance biocultural revival and restoration of the Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center through enhanced outreach and development of a wellness trail.

Read the full press release.

About the Program

The Vermont Community Foundation and Vermont Department of Health partnership takes advantage of one-time federal dollars to further support organizations around the state. The grant period runs through May 2024. 

Additional Information 

If you are an organization looking for funding for a health equity-related activity, please visit the available grants page. New and varied grant opportunities at the Community Foundation open throughout the year, and the grants team is available to respond to questions related to these programs.

If you are new to the Vermont Community Foundation, we invite you to  complete the newly released Nonprofit Connection Form here. This is an opportunity to share who you are, what you do, and understand how the Community Foundation can help. Organizations of all sizes and types are welcome to complete the form.  For inquiries about the online grants management (OGM) system or questions related to a specific competitive grant program, please contact grants@vermontcf.org and a member of the grants and community impact team will be in touch soon.

If you have questions about the ongoing implementation and support opportunities of the Vermont Department of Health grant and the Vermont Community Foundation partnership, please contact Al Belluche at abelluche@vermontcf.org or 802-388-3355 ext. 247.