Children’s Health Equity (CHEq) Initiative
The Children’s Health Equity (CHEq) Initiative, a part of Boston Children’s Collaboration for Community Health, will advance child health through place-based collective impact approaches. The CHEq Initiative will support collaborative projects within specific Boston communities to improve the health and well-being of children and families. The selected projects will foster new and long-lasting systems that promote and strengthen neighborhood cohesion.
This initiative has two phases:
- One-year planning grants were awarded to six neighborhood or geography based, cross-sector collaboratives to plan projects with the potential to reduce inequities in children’s health and well-being.
- We are now in the second phase of this initiative. Following the planning period, implementation grants have been awarded to four cross-sector collaboratives that demonstrate evidence of having strong implementation plans. Implementation grants will range from two to three years in length with the possibility of renewal.
Boston Children’s has selected the below four projects for phase two implementation grants. Each will implement their project to help improve the lives of children and families in their neighborhood. Initiatives will address either 1) child and family health and well-being or 2) community, family, and child resilience.
Learn more about these coalitions and their work.
Crossroads: Healthy Families, Resilient Fields Corner
This investment will improve child health by supporting the collaborative to build pipelines of support between families and resources through awareness and inter-organizational referrals, provide workshop and training opportunities to youth and residents, establish a youth council to drive neighborhoodwide collective efforts, and increase community leadership in local advocacy efforts in Fields Corner neighborhood of Dorchester.
- Population: children, youth, and families in Fields Corner
- Backbone organizations: Vietnamese American Initiative for Development Inc. and Dot House Health
Living Safely in Jackson Square
This investment will improve child health by supporting the collaborative to increase participation in early childhood education programs, connect families to financial capability services, and support youth and resident leadership in the Jackson Square neighborhood.
- Population: parents and caregivers, children ages birth to 5, youth
- Backbone organizations: Hyde Square Task Force, Jamaica Plain Tree of Life, and Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation
Nubian Neighborhood Network
This investment will improve child health by supporting the collaborative to develop pathways for students and adults to access STEM careers, create a neighborhood STEM presence, and institutionalize community partnerships to holistically support residents in the Dudley neighborhood of Roxbury and North Dorchester.
- Population: youth and adults
- Backbone organization: Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
Resilient Families Surround-Care School Community Coalition
This funding contribution will support Boston’s Higher Ground to lead a three-year collective impact project in the Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhood bounded by Blue Hill Avenue and Washington, Dudley, Warren, and Seaver streets. This investment will improve child health outcomes by supporting the collaborative to engage parents, increase access to support programs and services, and emphasize the importance of social emotional health in the classroom.
- Population: school-age children and their parents
- Backbone organization: Boston’s Higher Ground