The Institute for Family Health Receives Award from Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y., August 31, 2021— The Institute for Family Health is pleased to be included among the awardees of the first round of grants issued by Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity, which mobilizes financial resources for community health centers, free and charitable clinics, and other nonprofit organizations focused on non-clinical interventions that affect a person’s health – commonly known as the social determinants of health, these factors include a person’s physical, social, political, cultural, and economic environments.

The Institute for Family Health was awarded the grant to support Training for Change, a five-month workforce development project to recruit, train, and employ a first cohort of five community health advocates whose lived experience represent those of the health clinic’s patient population. Ada Umubera, LMSW, the Institute’s Director of Care Coordination said, “The project will serve as a pipeline to a job in a community health care or human service agency, where lived experience will be an asset transformed into a marketable skill-set that will benefit health care and social service providers, as well as their communities. Most importantly, the project will permit the Institute to employ more people who represent the communities we serve, making us better at what we do, and increasing the trust between our staff, our services and the community.”

Dr. Neil Calman, President and CEO of the Institute for Family Health, said “We are immensely grateful to receive this generous award. We look forward to training and employing direct care staff who are from the communities we serve and are positioned to provide top-quality care to all who come through our doors.”

The grants were awarded with support from the AbbVie Foundation, which seeded the Fund for Health Equity with a $10 million donation as part of its commitment to support underserved Black and other communities across the United States.  The first round of funding, which totals $1.8 million, also went to the following organizations for their efforts to enhance workforce diversification, reduce health disparities, and expand innovative models of care.

“This initial round of grants from the AbbVie Foundation and Direct Relief recognizes organizations like Institute for Family Health that are in the trenches every day supporting their communities which are impacted the most in terms of health disparities,” said Dr. Byron Scott, MD, MBA, Co-Chair of the Fund for Health Equity and Board Director of Direct Relief and Chair of its Medical Advisory Council. “I am humbled that both AbbVie and Direct Relief can help these organizations with their goals of improving health and wellness, including eliminating health inequities.”

“We are proud to support Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity and these community-focused organizations that will lead the way in improving care in many communities,” said Laura Schumacher, Vice Chairman, External Affairs and Chief Legal Officer, AbbVie. “This is just the first step as the Fund continues to identify more organizations across the country that are addressing health disparities through evidence-based programs and interventions.”

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The Institute for Family Health (www.institute.org) is a federally qualified health center network that operates 30 practices in New York State serving roughly 100,000 patients annually. Services are available to people of all ages, regardless of ability to pay.