Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Awards Grant to Breaking Ground to Provide Critical Services for Un-Documented Homeless New Yorkers
January 20, 2022 - Breaking Ground today announced that the agency has been named a recipient of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation’s January 2022 grant program, which recently awarded $140 million to more than 450 programs and organizations across New York State.
Mother Cabrini Health Foundation’s grant award will make possible Breaking Ground’s Queens Healthcare Pilot (QHCP), an initiative to improve health-related connections and care for unsheltered homeless individuals in the adjacent neighborhoods of Elmhurst and Corona in Queens. The program will be specifically tailored to meet the needs of un- and under-documented individuals experiencing homelessness.
“As we look back at the compounding crises of the last few years, the health-related needs of vulnerable communities have only grown. Our grantees have demonstrated tremendous resilience, creativity, and dedication to serving those in need, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have such detrimental impact,” said Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa and Chair of the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Board.
“Grant funding from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation will provide a lifeline for the un- and under-documented people we are serving on the streets of Queens,” said Brenda Rosen, President and CEO of Breaking Ground. “The roll out of this approach could not come at a more crucial moment, and we are eager to put this grant to work helping people get connected to healthcare, housing, and other services that will transform their lives.”
People who are un-documented and unsheltered face extreme challenges to accessing healthcare, putting them at risk of developing chronic conditions or and premature death. Breaking Ground’s three-year pilot program will enhance the agency’s existing outreach operations in Queens to deliver robust, person-centered wraparound healthcare coordination services. Forging partnerships with a diverse group of community-based healthcare providers and systems, the program will offer connections to a wide spectrum of medical services – including primary care, health screening services, substance use treatment, mental healthcare, and more – to meet each person’s needs. The holistic approach will also aim at addressing key social determinants of health through legal services and transitional and permanent housing.
At the conclusion of the three-year pilot program, the results will be disseminated with the goal of establishing methodologies that can be both replicated across Breaking Ground’s suite of programs and adapted by peer organizations.
The planning phase for the implementation of the QHCP program was made possible by generous support from the Altman Foundation and Mizuho Americas.
About Breaking Ground
Breaking Ground is New York’s largest supportive housing provider. With 26 transitional and permanent residences under management, primarily in New York City, Breaking Ground provides more than 4,400 units of safe, stable housing for those who need it most. Breaking Ground also runs, under contract with the New York City Department of Homeless Services, street homeless outreach services in all of
Brooklyn, Queens, and a portion of Manhattan. Each year, Breaking Ground’s programs and housing resources touch the lives of over 8,000 vulnerable New Yorkers.
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