News & Updates

  • A letter from HRiA President Steven Ridini

    Dear HRiA friends and colleagues,  Happy New Year to you all! January affords us the opportunity to reflect on the past year and set goals for the future. As we begin this new decade, I’d like to take a moment to think back on HRiA’s accomplishments and our path ahead. One of the most significant… Read more »

  • HRiA supports ban of flavored tobacco products and launches Fight All Flavors campaign

    Health Resources in Action is part of a powerful statewide movement in Massachusetts to address health inequities and seize the momentum across the Commonwealth to mobilize communities about the impacts of flavored tobacco. For decades, the tobacco industry has targeted Black communities with predatory marketing of mentholated products. That deliberate marketing continues today with heavy… Read more »

  • HRiA welcomes Nineequa Blanding as new HRiA Vice President

    Nineequa Blanding joins Health Resources in Action as Vice President of grantmaking, overseeing community health grantmaking in partnership with health care, governmental, and community-based clients, as well as the growth of biomedical research grantmaking through The Medical Foundation. Ms. Blanding brings expertise in program planning, grantmaking, research, and evaluation in academia, health care, and local… Read more »

  • HRiA co-hosts Public Health Breakfast Roundtable

    On July 24th, HRiA co-hosted with the Massachusetts Public Health Association and the Medical Legal Partnership Boston a Public Health Leaders Breakfast Roundtable with Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu. The listening session included public health and organizational leaders around the city representing healthcare, housing, community development, philanthropy, advocacy, and other sectors that play a critical… Read more »

  • New grant program launched for MassHealth providers to improve patient access: Proposals due no later than July 26, 2019

    The Provider Access Improvement Grant Program (PAIGP), funded by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services and managed by Health Resources in Action, is now accepting proposals. PAIGP aims to help eligible MassHealth providers increase access to healthcare and improve outcomes for patients with disabilities, and for whom English is not a primary… Read more »

  • The LEAH Project Awarded Project Innovation Grant

    Students of Project LEAH pose with the oversize Project Innovation grant check.

    The Leaders through Education, Action, and Hope (LEAH) Project of HRiA is pleased to be the recipient of a $40,000 Project Innovation grant. Project Innovation is a competitive grant program presented locally by NBC10 Boston, Telemundo Boston, and NECN in partnership with the NBCUniversal Foundation. It recognizes non-profit organizations that are using innovative solutions to… Read more »

  • HRiA co-hosts informational breakfast with State Senator Julian Cyr

    Three men and a woman pose and smile for a photo.

    HRiA, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Public Health Association (MPHA), co-hosted an informational breakfast with State Senator Julian Cyr, a key public health ally in the Massachusetts State Senate. The breakfast session gave leaders from public and private institutions an opportunity to share their top public health priorities with the senator, in his second term… Read more »

  • Nothing for us without us: Peer-based recovery is the latest in a long history of consumer-driven movements

    A growing movement is revolutionizing how we approach substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and view recovery – changing our language, helping to remove stigma, and celebrating the hard work of maintaining sobriety. HRiA has guided people in Massachusetts to treatment and recovery resources through the Massachusetts Substance Use Helpline for over 22 years. In that time,… Read more »

  • Just released: Springboard to Active Schools resources to integrate physical activity into classrooms

    Springboard to Active Schools, a collaborative initiative between HRiA, the National Network of Public Health Institutes, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a set of new resources for educators to help integrate physical activity into the classroom. These resources will help schools use evidence-based strategies to incorporate classroom physical activity and… Read more »

  • Project Here launches new substance use prevention app for middle school students

    Project Here, funded by the GE Foundation and the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, promotes social-emotional learning and empowers middle school students to make healthy decisions. HRIA serves as a fiscal sponsor and program manager to Project Here. On September 17, 2018, Project Here staff and partners participated in press conference at the Massachusetts… Read more »

  • HRiA becomes an approved vendor for MassHealth Accountable Care Organizations technical assistance services

    Friday, September 21st was the kick-off event for the MassHealth Accountable Care Organizations and Community Partners technical assistance (TA) program. HRiA was announced as one of the approved TA providers offering services through the Massachusetts Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program. As health care system and payment reform has required multiple stakeholders to evolve and… Read more »

  • Celebrating 60 years of impact

    Celebrating 60 years of impact

    Sixty years after our founding, Health Resources in Action continues to carry out its original mission to support medical research and health education – albeit in terms and approaches that continue to evolve with the times. HRiA was originally founded in 1957 as “The Medical Foundation of Metropolitan Boston” by founding partners including the Massachusetts… Read more »

  • Boston Medical Center partners with HRiA to improve health through stable housing investment

    Boston Medical Center partners with HRiA to improve health through stable housing investment

    Boston Medical Center is embarking on a groundbreaking four-year initiative to increase housing stability in Boston in partnership with multiple organizations and agencies throughout Boston, including Health Resources in Action, the Boston Alliance for Community Health (BACH), and the Center for Community Health Education Research and Service (CCHERS). Recognizing that stable housing is a significant… Read more »

  • Project Here substance use prevention initiative launches

    Project Here substance use prevention initiative launches

    The Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, along with the GE Foundation, HRiA, Epicenter Experience, and The Herren Project, launched the website and registration for Project Here on October 30. The public-private initiative will provide educational resources to schools to protect young people from substance use and address the opioid epidemic. HRiA serves as fiscal… Read more »

  • HRiA and the MA Alliance of Community Health Workers are working together

    HRiA and the MA Alliance of Community Health Workers are working together

    This summer, HRiA became the fiscal home for the Massachusetts Alliance of Community Health Workers (MACHW). HRiA is pleased to support the important work of Community Health Workers and a mission that aligns with our own, and welcomes Lisette Blondet. Over its 17-year history, MACHW has advocated for policies and programs that promote best practices… Read more »

  • HRiA expands substance use disorder work

    HRiA expands substance use disorder work

    HRiA was awarded a contract with the State of Illinois to run their Opioid Assistance and Recovery Services (OARS) Hotline – the first of its kind in the state. Like the rest of the country, Illinois has experienced an upward trend in opioid-related emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and overdose deaths, while administration of naloxone… Read more »

  • HRiA awarded NIH Science Education Partners Award grant

    HRiA awarded NIH Science Education Partners Award grant

    Health Resources in Action has received a five-year, $1.25 million Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand its LEAH STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education program for Boston and Cambridge public high school students. Health Resources in Action (HRiA), in… Read more »

  • New Report: Positive childhood experiences make for healthier adults

    Several years ago, I attended a meeting about providing home visitors and other supports to young parents and their children. During the break, the charismatic leader of a wonderful program talked to me about her frustrations: Her staff spent their days with the young families screening for problems like domestic violence, depression, drug and alcohol… Read more »

  • A focus on ZIP code brings new partners together

    In the last few years, striking data visualizations have demonstrated what many already knew: The places where people live, work, learn, play, and pray impact the health of communities.  In fact, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in Time to Act: Investing in the Health of Our Children and Communities states that when it comes to… Read more »

  • Assessing public health and health care trends in an uncertain time

    Spending even a moment watching the news, scanning social media, or reading a newspaper will reveal a new story about the potential policy and budgetary directions of public health and health care. It is an uncertain time and even more essential now for organizations committed to population health to be innovative, flexible, and nimble while… Read more »

  • NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Pipeline to Proposal Tier A Awards   

    NEW FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Pipeline to Proposal Tier A Awards   

    PCORI is seeking Letters of Inquiry (LOIs) for Tier A projects through their Pipeline to Proposal (P2P) Awards Initiative. This program supports the development of research ideas and proposals designed by partnerships of patients, caregivers, and other healthcare stakeholders. The deadline for submitting a letter of inquiry is Thursday, April 20, 2017. Full details are available… Read more »

  • From patient health to population health: The changing landscape

    Public health professionals have long understood that controlling health care costs is largely dependent on improving the health of communities. Healthcare organizations, while supporting the principle that community health improvement is good for society, have played less of a role in addressing issues that impact the public’s health. There are many reasons for this, including… Read more »

  • HRiA’s FAST strategic planning process: Maximizing impact, engagement, and efficiency

    Organizations and community partnerships know strategic planning is critical to better performance, engagement, and quality improvement. Yet many face the reality that planning is time consuming and costly. HRiA’s FAST approach to Facilitating Alignment and Strategic Thinking builds consensus, uses data to inform collective action, and aligns efforts to maximize impact. FAST is an intensive… Read more »

  • Using the FAST Approach to Enhance the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts

    Using the FAST Approach to Enhance the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts

    In June 2016, HRiA facilitated a FAST rapid strategic planning process for the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts (WWCMA). WWCMA is a membership organization offering resources and networking opportunities to help members cultivate and sustain a culture of health and wellness for employees and their families across Massachusetts. HRiA worked with the WWCMA board to… Read more »

  • HRiA co-hosts first statewide Health Impact Assessment conference

    “It’s the job of public health to tell the truth about what creates health.” Conference keynote speaker, Jeanne Ayers, the Chief Health Equity Strategist for the Minnesota Department of Health inspired the room full of professionals. On December 8, 2016, over 100 people came together at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston for an important… Read more »

  • Developing a Racially Diverse Biomedical Research Workforce

    There are stark gaps in life expectancy, disease incidence, and health status among different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. While social determinants of health play an undeniably large role in both race and class discrepancies, HRiA’s new Policy & Practice Report explores another contributing factor. Developing a Racially Diverse Biomedical Research Workforce… Read more »

  • EPA Recognizes HRiA’s Asthma Regional Council with National Award

    Health Resources in Action’s Asthma Regional Council (ARC) has been awarded the National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the New England Asthma Innovation Collaborative project. ARC was one of only four awardees nationally. ARC established the New England Asthma Innovation Collaborative (NEAIC) in 2012 with a Centers for… Read more »

  • Working with Young People in Response to Opioid Crisis

    Working with Young People in Response to Opioid Crisis

    HRiA has recently engaged in two new projects with young people related to the opioid crisis striking the state. Peer Leadership Preventing Substance Abuse Justice Resource Institute has hired Health Resources in Action to train youth in the Peer Leadership Preventing Substance Abuse curricula. The youth will be coming from five of JRI’s youth group… Read more »