BOSTON – Boston Medical Center (BMC) is pleased to announce a $3 million grant from the Yawkey Foundation to support BMC’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry program, a leader in ensuring equitable access to quality behavioral health services for Boston families.
The Yawkey Foundation funding supports BMC’s strategic co-location and expansion of its Child & Adolescent Psychiatry resources, creating an accessible single-stop location for quality medical and behavioral pediatric and family care in the Crosstown building at 801 Massachusetts Avenue, 7th floor, this spring. The building is also home to BMC Pediatrics, General Internal Medicine and Family Medicine departments and services, along with coordinated care and navigation services, including transportation, social worker and interpreter support. These centralized services support a historically underserved population: 70 percent of BMC patients identify as Black, LatinX, or of other diverse backgrounds, approximately 30 percent speak a language other than English as their primary language, and more than half live at or below the federal poverty level.
“The Yawkey Foundation has been a longtime partner to Boston Medical Center, and the foundation’s gift comes at a particularly important time,” said Kate Walsh, CEO of Boston Medical Center Health System. “The pandemic left children isolated from their peers and expanded social networks, increasing both the volume and complexity of behavioral health care needs our team is seeing. With this incredibly generous gift, we know we can provide the coordinated support children and families need and deserve. We’re honored that Boston Medical Center can be part of the Yawkeys’ legacy through this gift.”
The grant announcement coincides with the anniversary of what would have been Jean Yawkey’s 114th birthday.
“Our Trustees know that this investment in Boston Medical Center, our longstanding partner, will meaningfully improve access to world-class, integrated pediatric behavioral and medical health care, and in particular, increase BMC’s capacity to support the growing demand for in-person treatment among the children and adolescents it serves with such care, respect, and expertise,” said Maureen H. Bleday, CEO of the Yawkey Foundation. “Sharing news of this grant on the anniversary of Jean’s birthday is especially poignant for us, because throughout their lives, Tom Yawkey and Jean Yawkey prioritized support for children with emotional and behavioral health issues, and this grant perpetuates that commitment.”
Since 2003, Yawkey Foundation has provided more than $16 million in charitable grants to BMC for health care and human service programs and capital projects, including a $500,000 grant in 2017 to support the strategic planning and design of renovated spaces to improve access to and capacity of the hospital’s child and adolescent psychiatric care.
ABOUT THE YAWKEY FOUNDATION
The Yawkey Foundation is dedicated to perpetuating the philanthropic legacy of Tom Yawkey and Jean Yawkey, whose eight decades of quiet generosity supported individuals and families in the communities that were closest to their hearts – Massachusetts and Georgetown County, South Carolina. Having awarded more than $530 million to-date in charitable grants to organizations focused on Health Care, Education, Human Services, Youth and Amateur Athletics, Arts and Culture, and Conservation and Wildlife, Yawkey Foundation is committed to preserving and sustaining the charitable values of the Yawkeys by investing in impactful nonprofits providing resources, opportunity, and dignity to the vulnerable and underserved. For more information, please visit www.yawkeyfoundation.org.