20th round of Boston Resiliency Fund Grants announced

Mayor Martin J. Walsh and the Boston Resiliency Fund Steering Committee today announced the 20th round of Boston Resiliency Fund grants, with over $840,000 in new grants awarded to 19 local organizations and nonprofits. Since launching in March to help Boston residents most affected by COVID-19, the Boston Resiliency Fund has distributed over $26.3 million to 348 local organizations and nonprofits. Fifty five percent of grantee organizations are led by a person of color, 58 percent of grantee organizations are led by a woman, and 27 percent of grantees are immigrant-serving organizations. A map and a list of every organization that has received funding from the Boston Resiliency Fund can be found here. 

"We created the Boston Resiliency Fund so that our nonprofit partners could more quickly and effectively provide outreach and support to our most vulnerable populations throughout the City of Boston," said Mayor Walsh. "I am so proud that we have reached this milestone of distributing grants to organizations providing vital services to Bostonians. Thank you to all of our partners who have helped showcase the importance of working together."

The twentieth round of grants include funding to support culturally competent food access services through trusted community organizations in for neighborhoods throughout Boston, wraparound services for students, and expanded COVID-19 testing at The Dimock Center. 

"The Boston Resiliency Fund's grant will help The Dimock Center expand our COVID-19 testing staffing and hours to reach more people in our community," said Raquel Rosenblatt, Chief Development Officer at The Dimock Center. "The demand for testing at Dimock has more than doubled in the past month. This generous grant will ensure that we respond to the significant need in Roxbury as we enter the fall and next phase of the pandemic. We appreciate the tremendous support of the Boston Resiliency Fund for Dimock's urgent work over the past six months."

Building Audacity: Building Audacity will use the grant to offer grocery gift cards, hot lunch delivery, and a virtual academic recovery program. To ensure fully supporting multilingual student learners and families, Building Audacity will offer academic recovery sessions and family engagement in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Central Assembly of God Church: Central Assembly of God Church in East Boston will use the grant to sustain efforts to provide a twice-weekly distribution of food that gives East Boston community members access to essential and nutritious foods by combining fresh produce from a local vendor and food staple items from local sources. This grant will also help sustain the local business economy by purchasing fresh produce items from a local community grocer. 

Community Caring Clinic: Community Caring Clinic will use the grant to provide grocery gift cards to clients, who are mostly frontline workers in essential retail, transportation and health care, and from the low-income, immigrant, and/or Islamic communities of Boston. 

Company One: Company One will use the grant to serve the 50-100 diverse organizations that provide services to BPS schools as partners or in a support capacity to assist in the transition to online services. All programming will be offered for free and additional resources, such as handouts, video training and connections with similar organizations will be made available to all partner organizations through the BPS Partnership Office in multiple languages. All digital content will have simultaneous interpretation and captioning.

DeeDee's Cry Suicide Prevention and Family Support: DeeDee's Cry will use the grant to provide Amazon gift cards for basic supplies and groceries through Amazon Fresh to families or individuals that reside within the communities of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan, and have fallen behind on rent or bills or lost wages due to COVID-19.

The Dimock Center: The Dimock Center started to offer onsite COVID-19 testing to patients in March 2020, and expanded to community testing in May 2020, thanks to the support of a Boston Resiliency Fund grant and additional federal funds. This additional grant will allow them to employ additional staff for testing operations off-side and expand the hours for testing at the Dimock. 

Fair Foods: Fair Foods will use the funding from Boston Resiliency Fund to increase food access in two ways for 18 immigrant-serving nonprofits. For 11 of their nonprofit partners, Fair Foods will supply fresh produce to distribute to individuals at no cost. The Boston Resiliency Fund grant will also allow Fair Foods to empower seven of their nonprofit partners with vouchers to distribute to individuals. Each voucher has the purchasing power of two bags of fresh produce. Without a voucher, individuals can purchase one bag of fresh produce for $2, valued originally at $15 to $20. Vouchers can be used at Fair Foods locations throughout the City of Boston. Locations can be found here. 

FUNDO ARCU (Dominican Foundation of Arts and Culture): FUNDO ARCU will use the BRF grant to support the Dominican community in the City of Boston by providing gift cards, ethnic food boxes, laundry baskets and supplies, baby formula and diapers, and other basic hygiene products.

Haitian American Public Health Initiatives, Inc: Haitian American Public Health Initiatives, Inc. (HAPHI) will use the grant to purchase nutritious food including vegetables, cereal, meats, fish, poultry, and fruits for Boston residents. Many clients of HAPHI have children with disabilities. For parents or seniors who are unable to cook, premade meals will be provided from a local restaurant. HAPHI drivers will provide door to door delivery of groceries and meals so parents and seniors do not need to leave their homes. 

Hearth, Inc: The Hearth Inc. will use the grant to purchase 100 grocery gift cards for their clients, as well as three months of personal protective equipment for direct care staff and cleaning products for six Hearth-owned sites in Boston. 

Louis D. Brown Peace Institute: The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute (LDBPI) will use this grant to support Boston's families, children, and seniors with food access through gift cards and monetary food vouchers for groceries. LDBPI will also provide programming for critical mental health and behavioral training for Boston's frontline workers so that they can give essential crisis and trauma management to the families of Boston who have been impacted by trauma, grief and loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

METCO, Inc.: METCO will use the grant to provide wraparound service support and referrals to Boston students in the METCO program. A case manager will meet virtually and individually with each family to evaluate needs, directly assist with application processes such as SNAP, unemployment, and financial assistance (especially relevant for literacy-challenged or English learners), compile a comprehensive hub of resources and provide referrals to agencies that can further address additional needs.

Mount Olives Community Center: Mount Olives Community Center will use the grant to support digital literacy at their space in Hyde Park. 

St. Stephen's Youth Programs: St. Stephen's Youth Programs will use the grant to support their COVID-19 response program called B-LOVE. The intent of B-LOVE is to support the community's most basic needs by distributing food, paper products, cleaning supplies, and gift cards.

Salesian Boys & Girls Club: Salesian Boys & Girls Club will use the grant to support their  Weekly Family Dinner Night Program. These funds will be used to increase the numbers of families served from 60 to 90 families this fall.

Sociedad Latina: Sociedad Latina will use the grant to fund essential care packages of PPE for families and at-home kits with supplies and materials that enable our youth to participate in programming at home. 

Tifereth Raphael: Tifereth Raphael will use the BRF grant to increase their food and basic needs inventory through the purchase and storage of specialty kosher food items to support the Jewish community in Boston. 

Urban Guild Inc.: Urban Guild Inc. will use the grant to continue their current work to help with holistic support for their community, including stewarding communal Guild gardens, and to provide food access support for their community by purchasing and distributing food boxes through local businesses. 

Vietnamese American Initiative for Development, Inc. (VietAid): VietAid will use the grant to continue supporting staff coordination of meal sites, and provide temporary staff to assist with benefit applications and culturally appropriate meals for older adults and groceries for families in Fields Corner. Funds will also be used to purchase necessities such as hand sanitizer, diapers, and PPE.