Community Health Network of North Central Massachusetts, also known as CHNA-9, has received a $200,000 grant from UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton hospital in Leominster to establish a North Central Mass. Anchor Collaborative.
The Community Health Network Area initiative is a program dating to 1992, founded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. CHNA 9 covers 27 communities in North Worcester County.
Using the grant from UMass, which was announced Aug. 20, CHNA-9 will serve as the backbone for a five-year, $500,000-project aiming to bring together six anchor institutions in the region who will collaborate to impact the area’s community wealth and culture, per the CHNA 9 website. They will aim to improve economic outcomes, increase community cohesion, support a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion, and promote sustainability.
The founding anchor institutions include Community Health Connections, which has offices in Leominster and Fitchburg, Fitchburg State University, Gardner Public Schools, Heywood Healthcare of Gardner, the nonprofit LUK, Inc. of Fitchburg, and UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital.
New anchor institutions will be added in years to come.
