Neighborhood Villages Awarded Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital Community Health Impact Funds
Funding to Support Mental and Behavioral Health Initiative
Boston, MA (April 10, 2024) – Neighborhood Villages is pleased to announce that it has received Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Community Health Impact Funds to support Neighborhood Villages’ work with Ellis Early Learning in Jamaica Plain in piloting a multi-layered, comprehensive behavioral health model for ECE settings that can be scaled across the state.
The expansion of Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital (BWFH), part of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, triggered a landmark investment through the Massachusetts Determination of Need (DoN) process. BWFH Community Health Impact Funds were awarded to eight community-based organizations, including Neighborhood Villages, who proposed initiatives for the community-led, equity-driven priority of mental and behavioral health—including substance use disorders. These initiatives were focused in the Boston neighborhoods of Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, West Roxbury, and Roslindale.
“We are so grateful to Mass General Brigham and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital for their investment in mental and behavioral health, and specifically for recognizing the enormous need for these services in the early childhood sector” said Sarah Muncey, Co-President and Co-Founder of Neighborhood Villages. “With support from this funding, Neighborhood Villages will be able to further develop and pilot a menu of behavioral and mental health supports that represents the full scope of services needed to meet this moment of unprecedented need in the 0-5 landscape.”
This multi-tiered system of support, similar to the ones used by K-12 school systems across the country, allows for universal preventative support while ensuring that students and families experiencing more acute challenges receive support in the least restrictive environment appropriate for their needs.
“Congratulatulations to Neighborhood Villages for securing this remarkable mental and behavioral health funding,” said Tracy Sylven, Mass General Brigham’s Director of Community Health for Brigham and Women’s/Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. “Based on their innovative proposal, we know that they will make a significant impact, and we look forward to finding more ways to collaborate as their program unfolds.”
Right now, Neighborhood Villages is piloting parts of this programming across several Boston child care centers. Educators involved in the pilot program have reported that access to a mental health consultant has had a positive impact on staff, families, and children.
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About Neighborhood Villages
Neighborhood Villages designs and scales innovative and collaborative solutions to the biggest challenges facing early education and child care providers serving families with young children ages 0-5 and advances sustainable, equity-driven systems change through advocacy, education, and policy reform.
About Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital
Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham Healthcare system, is a 171- bed non-profit, community teaching hospital located in southwest Boston. Founded in 1900, it offers comprehensive medical, surgical, and psychiatric care as well as complete emergency, ambulatory and diagnostic services. For more information, visit www.brighamandwomensfaulkner.org.
About Mass General Brigham
Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit www.massgeneralbrigham.org.
