Healthy Communities Fund

The Asian American Health Initiative (AAHI) has determined that sustained funding is needed to facilitate community-based organizations (CBOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) providing linguistically and culturally appropriate services to the diverse Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in Montgomery County, Maryland. The Asian American Health Initiative has launched Healthy Communities Fund (HCF) to accomplish this goal. In partnership with the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County Maryland Inc. (PCC), AAHI and PCC seek to fund programs in behavioral health, senior wellness, and health & social support services.

Each fiscal year, AAHI publishes a Request for Proposal for HCF to solicit applications from eligible 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations to provide services to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Montgomery County Maryland. Community organizations of all sizes are encouraged to apply as there is no minimum award amount to apply. Organizations are facilitated in preparing to apply through informational sessions, technical assistance meetings and consultations with grant writing experts at no charge.

AAPI communities are very diverse and have unique challenges collectively and individually. With 15 different Asian American subgroups in the community, and unique needs in each subgroup, programing must be tailored for each subgroup with consideration to the language and culture of the population being served. Through the Healthy Communities Fund, AAHI wishes to accomplish its mission of improving the health and wellness of Asian American residents and communities in Montgomery County Maryland.

FUNDING CATEGORIES

All proposed programs must address one of the funding categories and the corresponding outcome statements listed below.

• Funding categories are not ranked by order of importance and the number of funding categories selected by an applicant does not affect points.
• These funding categories are for the direct benefit of the AAPI communities and residents.
• Service examples are just examples. Thus, organizations are encouraged to propose services, within the described funding categories, that can best address the specific needs of the communities they serve.

The following types of services are not eligible for an award through Healthy Communities Fund:

• Social media programs – programs or services that operate on and/or primarily engage social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, WeChat, IMO, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc.
• Online content production and distribution – distribution can have an online component but not solely online
• Religious events or celebrations – religious events can be used to provide services, but funding cannot be used to solely pay for religious events or celebrations
• Cultural events or celebrations – cultural events can be used to provide services, but funding cannot be solely used to pay for cultural events or celebrations
• Political events or celebrations
• Services that do not capture and report the age, race, gender, and zip-code of clients served

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for a grant award under this program the applicant organization must:

• Be a nonprofit corporation with either 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status.
• Provide services to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in Montgomery County, Maryland. Applicants may be located in other jurisdictions, but the proposed program(s) must serve residents of Montgomery County, Maryland only.
• Be registered and in good standing with the State of Maryland or adjacent jurisdiction. Have all appropriate licenses and insurance consistent with the Primary Care Coalition terms and conditions.
• Have been continuously delivering one or more culturally and linguistically competent services to ethnically and economically diverse AAPI communities in Montgomery County, Maryland since July 1, 2021.
• Have the ability and capacity to provide services throughout the term of the grant period which ends with the fiscal year on June 30th.
• Have an established or the ability to establish a mechanism to collect and report on client data such as age, race, gender, zip code, and more.

NOTE: The programs and services provided under this grant must not be funded by another agency (county, state, federal, for-profit, or nonprofit)