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Italian Home for Children Awarded $300,000 Cummings Grant

Last updated on June 13, 2021

Italian Home for Children is one of the 140 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 to $500,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s $25 Million Grant Program.

The Jamaica Plain-based organization was chosen from a total of 590 applicants during a competitive review process. It will receive $300,000 over 10 years. Italian Home for Children provides an integrated network of powerful and effective programs to help children and families with emotional, behavioral, and educational challenges thrive in their communities.

“During these challenging times of the pandemic and social unrest, we have expanded our outreach services during the pandemic by 20%. Our community outreach and outpatient clinic programs serve around 1500 individuals and families from Boston each year,” said Acting CEO Susan Keays.

With the Cummings grant, Italian Home will continue to expand their outreach through supporting Boston Public Schools in understanding the effects of a child’s behavioral health diagnosis or trauma on ability to learn and providing therapy to students in school when there are barriers to traditional “evening therapy.” They will also continue coordinating clinical care to monitor treatment goals and ensure family’s needs are met. Italian Home will remain advocating with clinical and medical providers, school systems, insurance companies, and benefit providers to make sure that each family’s unique clinical needs are considered, and their voice is heard.

“Italian Home does everything we can to help families with their current stresses, including delivering meals and food to reduce food insecurity, advocating for them when housing is threatened, providing transportation assistance to important appointments, and connecting them with community support groups,” added Keays.

The Cummings $25 Million Grant Program supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties.
Through this community-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate, Cummings Properties. This Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.

“We aim to help meet the needs of people in all segments of our local community,” said Cummings Foundation executive director Joel Swets. “It is the incredible organizations we fund however, that do the actual daily work to empower our neighbors, educate our children, fight for equity, and so much more.”

This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including social justice, homelessness prevention, affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. The nonprofits are spread across 43 different cities and towns.

The complete list of 140 grant winders, plus more than 800 previous recipients, is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org. Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $300 million to greater Boston nonprofits.

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