Baystate Healthholding listeningsessions onhealth center

SPRINGFIELD — Baystate Health plans to host a series of community engagement and listening sessions to share information and gain community input on its state-of-the-art community health and wellness center to be located on property donated by MassMutual on its Springfield campus. Baystate and MassMutual made a joint announcement in May about the construction of a 90,000-square-foot health center.

Eight total sessions — six in-person sessions in Springfield and two virtual sessions — have been planned through Sept. 26. Those interested in participating can RSVP at baystatehealth.org/community-health-center-project.

The community health and wellness center will allow Baystate Health to consolidate services from four of its existing Springfield health centers — the Mason Square Neighborhood Health Center, Baystate High Street Health Center, Baystate High Street Pediatrics and Wesson Women’s Clinic — to the new center on the donated MassMutual property, located across from the intersection of Alden Street and Wilbraham Road.

The facility is expected to be under construction by the end of 2025. The current health centers will remain open and fully functional until their services can be transitioned to the new health center, which is anticipated to be sometime in 2027.

MassMutual is donating approximately 10 acres of land valued at an estimated $5 million in the southeast corner of its Springfield campus, as well as providing financing and other support for the project. In addition, the MassMutual Foundation is donating $5 million over five years to support the new health center that will be owned and operated by Baystate Health.

Women’s Fund awards $240K to17 organizations

SPRINGFIELD — The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts has announced $240,000 in grants this year and through 2026 to 17 organizations serving women, girls, transgender and gender-diverse people across Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire counties.

CEO Vanessa Pabón-Hernandez explained that the Women’s Fund’s general grant cycle will provide $200,000 in awards to 13 organizations in 2024 and 2025. An additional four gifts totaling $40,000 were also made from the organization’s Young Women’s Initiative for the current year.

The funding rounds were competitive, with applications received from 126 organizations.

“These grants will uplift the incredible work being done by organizations throughout the region that are committed to addressing disparities and fostering inclusion for women, girls and gender-diverse individuals,” Pabon-Hernandez said in a statement. “We are honored to offer grants that will support efforts in building more equitable and vibrant communities.”

Priority was given to organizations committed to gender and racial justice and equity as well as the philanthropic agency’s key strategic pillars — economic security, parity in positions of power and leadership, and freedom from gender-based violence.

These grants will support a broad range of organizations, including small start-ups, grassroots organizations and well-established nonprofits.

Grant recipients for this funding round include: 50 Arrow Gallery in Easthampton, A Queen’s Narrative in Springfield, Berkshire Community Diaper Project in West Stockbridge, Elizabeth Freeman Center in Pittsfield, It Takes a Village in Huntington, Make-It Springfield, Mother Root Farm in West Cummington, New England Learning Center for Women in Transition (NELCWIT) in Greenfield, Pioneer Valley Workers Center in Northampton, Somali Bantu Community in Springfield, Springfield No One Leaves/Nadie Se Mude, Visioning B.E.A.R. Circle Intertribal Coalition in Greenfield and Western Massachusetts Parasol Patrol in Montague.

Lisa Goding, executive director of It Takes a Village, said in a statement, “This grant will help us strengthen our postpartum support programs, ensuring that every family, regardless of background or circumstances, has the resources needed to thrive.”

For grants awarded through the Women’s Fund’s Young Women’s Initiative, members and alumnae of two current cohorts in Springfield and Turners Falls deliberated to make nominations for funding.

These cohorts distributed $40,000 to Springfield- and Turners Falls-serving organizations. In Springfield, the recipients are Volunteers in Medicine, which focuses on addressing medical care cost barriers, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts scholarship program.

In Turners Falls, grants were awarded to the Finders Collective, which provides financial help for single mothers, and Girls Inc., which helps create a pipeline for young women and girls to enter science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

The Young Women’s Initiative is a national project aimed at creating prosperity for young women. The Women’s Fund partners, Arise for Social Justice and Montague Catholic Social Ministries, lead the initiative’s Springfield and Franklin County partnerships, respectively, and support young women and gender-diverse leaders, centering Black, Indigenous and people of color throughout the leadership development, social justice and philanthropic program.