Healthy Lives: Health and Behavioral Health / Older Adults and People with Disabilities Grant Program

The Healthy Lives Grant Program by The New York Community Trust aims to enhance health services for older adults and individuals with disabilities in New York City. It focuses on creating an equitable healthcare system by supporting projects that improve access to care, reduce health disparities, and empower individuals through skill development. The program prioritizes innovative solutions that foster independence and community engagement, ensuring that vulnerable populations receive comprehensive support tailored to their needs.

NYCT: Healthy Lives
We help providers deliver efficient, patient-focused, equitable, and cost-effective health and behavioral health services to all New Yorkers. We support projects that develop the skills and independence of four groups of people with special needs: the elderly, the blind or visually impaired, children and youth with disabilities, and people with developmental disabilities. We also support biomedical research and projects for animal welfare.
Program goal: to promote an equitable, patient-focused, and cost-effective health and behavioral health care delivery system.
Grants are made to:

• Advocate for successful health care reform implementation to ensure:

maintenance of a strong and viable health and behavioral health care safety net;access to comprehensive and coordinated care for those who remain uninsured or underinsured; andavailability of screening, early intervention, and referral for effective treatment of disease.
Build the capacity of New York City’s health, behavioral health, and human service sectors to succeed in a reformed health care system by:
developing effective skills training for the professional and paraprofessional health care workforce; andstrengthening financial and information technology systems to allow transition to value-based payments.
Reduce health disparities between low- and higher-income neighborhoods through investments in disadvantaged communities that:
improve indoor and outdoor air quality;provide safe and inviting parks and open space;promote access to affordable and healthy food; andengage residents in efforts to encourage physical activity and healthy diets.
Foster the independence of people with mental illness and substance use histories by:
expanding innovative programs that offer clinical care as well as practical services, such as housing, employment, and education; andadvocating for expansion of participant-led or informed service models that are sustainable and effective.
Read the background paper that informed this grantmaking strategy here.
The Trust has a coordinated approach that reflects the common challenges and opportunities for the following groups of people: older adults, children and youth with disabilities, people with blindness and visual disabilities, and people with developmental disabilities. We support projects that target low-income individuals and communities.
Grants are made to:

• Make New York City communities—especially those that are under-resourced—accessible, welcoming, and inclusive for people with special needs by:

supporting research and pilot efforts that demonstrate these principles; andensuring that laws that fund services and expand opportunities are implemented fully and effectively.
Ensure that health, social, education, and vocational services allow people with special needs to live up to their fullest potential by:
supporting and replicating proven strategies that help these populations receive appropriate education, high quality vocational preparation, and equal employment opportunities;testing new approaches that use technology and other innovations to help people with special needs remain as independent as possible; andsupporting families and caregivers of people with special needs.
Build the capacity of nonprofits serving people with special needs by:
ensuring the workforce serving these populations is provided effective training, better career pathways, and increased job quality;helping agencies create appropriate financial and management systems, and partnerships to benefit from new financing mechanisms through Medicaid and Medicare.
Read the background paper that informed this grantmaking strategy here.

Eligibility

Most of our competitive grants go to public charities, or groups sponsored by one. Grantees (or fiscal agents) should have a board of directors with at least five members, and no more than one paid board member. We fund programs that promote change in policy or systems, build capacity of organizations, and expand and/or improve direct service.

Ineligibility

We do not make grants to individuals, or for general operating support, capital and building campaigns, endowments, equipment, deficit financing, or religious purposes.