Community Health Programs
Learn about our youth program
Learn about our health careers training partnership
Learn about our Maternal Health Program
Healthy neighbors, stronger communities
We’re committed to addressing the health-related issues and concerns faced by residents in the communities we serve and beyond.
It’s our responsibility to not only treat illnesses, but to do our part to prevent diseases and alleviate the social and environmental factors that cause them. Through partnerships and initiatives, we identify and address important community needs and concerns, connecting thousands of people each year to programs, resources, and supports focused on improving health and well-being.
Read on, to learn about some of the Mass General Brigham community health programs in the Boston and North Suffolk communities.
Community health programs
Through internships, job shadowing, summer jobs, and workshops, the Mass General Brigham Youth Program helps teens and young adults from tenth grade through college build skills, confidence, and connections.
They discover the different aspects of health care in real-world settings:
- Tenth graders explore different health care fields and career paths.
- Eleventh and twelfth graders focus on internships and skill-building and receive support planning their next steps.
- College students get continued mentorship, support navigating careers, and access to a robust alumni network.
Each year we accept 75 students from Boston, Revere, and Chelsea into the Youth Program. We look for students who are curious about careers in health care, research, or science and are eager to grow academically and professionally.
In the communities we serve, many birthing parents and children face substance dependency, low birthweight, and death. In response, we’ve developed numerous programs that support pregnant people and newborns. Our priorities include healthier pregnancies, births, and lives for birthing parents and their children.
Our Birth Partners Doula Project, for example, connects eligible pregnant patients to a doula who meets with the patient before birth, is there for labor and birth, and visits the new parent and baby after they come home. The Birth Partners Doula program is part of our larger Driving Equity and Maternal Health (DREAMH) initiative.
And our Mobile Postpartum Care Unit helps us meet postpartum patients where they are, with a focus on reducing complications in people who recently gave birth and are at high risk for complications.
Access to specialty care is particularly challenging in more rural areas, which often limits the treatment options for patients who live there.
Through the Mass General Brigham Outreach Program with Native American Communities, our clinical community—doctors, nurses, and other staff—works to fill gaps in care for local Native American tribal communities.
We partner with Native American tribal communities and agencies and the Indian Health Service (IHS) to improve health care access and reduce gaps in care for American Indian and Alaska Native communities in Massachusetts and around the country.
This includes our partnership with Boston’s Native American LifeLines, supporting their initiatives and sponsoring Grand Rounds sessions led by local Native American community leaders. The Grand Rounds work helps us better educate and inform health care providers about the unique health challenges in these communities.
Having enough to eat doesn’t always mean the same thing as eating foods that promote well-being and could prevent or treat some diseases. Our Food is Medicine strategy encourages people to see the benefits of nutrition from food the same way they view medical care. We provide community services that screen for food insecurity and help eliminate neighborhood barriers to healthy foods.
Mass General Brigham food and nutrition programs include our Community Care Vans, which offer screenings and resources related to food insecurity and our mobile market collaborations, which bring free, fresh food to residents in Suffolk County through La Colaborativa and the YMCA of Greater Boston.