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IDD Updates

Rising Ground Launches New Community Education & Healthcare Navigation Project

Updates: Thanks To $200,000 Grant From Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, Rising Ground Launches New Community Education & Healthcare Navigation Project; Added Housing Assistance for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities; Mental Health Services for Runaway and Homeless Youth

February 7, 2022 –Rising Ground, one of New York’s most impactful human services organizations, today announced it has received a $200,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to create a new benchmark-setting community-based program to help individuals and families have better access to healthcare. Additionally, Rising Ground has been awarded a housing subsidy grant by the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) to help adults with intellectual disabilities be able to live in their own homes, and the organization has been invited by New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) to operate a mental health wellness hub to support youth who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.   

The $200,000 grant by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for the new Community Education & Healthcare Navigation project will allow Rising Ground to hire bilingual staff to work with families from a cross section of existing programs, focus on preventive healthcare measures, create family-centered health plans, address barriers to healthcare, provide child developmental screenings, offer practical health education and workshops tied to nutritional education. The project will be key to addressing health disparities owing to the complex healthcare services landscape that presents almost insurmountable challenges for the low-income, vulnerable individuals and families Rising Ground supports.

“Many New Yorkers, due to no fault of their own, don’t always make the best decisions when it comes to their healthcare needs,” notes Alan Mucatel, CEO, Rising Ground. “This can be explained away partly because the system is so complex and hospital emergency rooms often become the ‘one-stop-shopping’ place for all things medical. This very generous grant by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation will help alleviate some of those hurdles by allowing us to assist parents with the proper navigation through the healthcare system so they can ultimately make better decisions for themselves and their children.”

The New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities Housing Subsidy grant will help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) live in their own homes by subsidizing a portion of their rent. Rising Ground assists in finding those homes, and ensuring the individuals manage their finances. In addition, we offer other related services such as community habilitation, which enhances independent living skills, and supported employment to help find and retain employment. Rising Ground currently supports 21 individuals in 19 apartments and will now be able support an additional 16 in apartments we have identified in the Morris Heights section of The Bronx.

The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development has invited Rising Ground to operate a mental health wellness hub to support youth, ages 14-24, who are homeless or at risk at being homeless. This hub will operate out of Rising Ground’s Brooklyn office and be supported by the NYC Department of Health and Hygiene. The hub will provide individual and group therapy by licensed clinicians, crisis intervention services, and referrals for psychiatric care. The hub is an important addition for runaway and homeless youth that includes Rising Ground’s Transitional Independent Living (TIL) sites across New York City.

 


 

Media Contact:
Adam H. Brill, Harrison Edwards PR
[email protected]

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