Special Projects Fund Archives - New York Health Foundation

Propel and GiveDirectly

Hunger rates in New York State have surpassed early pandemic levels, according to the latest NYHealth data brief.

With rising food prices, inflation, and stagnant wages, working families are increasingly relying on food assistance programs, like SNAP, as a lifeline to survive. Amid the government shutdown, the federal government delayed and reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for November. After threatening to fully withhold benefits, the federal government provided partial benefits under court orders. These actions put an estimated 3 million New Yorkers in an immediate hunger crisis. In 2025, NYHealth awarded partners Propel and Give Directly a grant to provide immediate cash relief to New York families at risk of hunger amid the government shutdown and SNAP benefit delays.

Under this grant, New York-based civic tech organization Propel leveraged its platform, which connects an estimated 400,000 New Yorkers to SNAP electronic benefits, to send a cash transfer to New York families at risk of hunger. The transfer was distributed to New Yorkers who receive the maximum SNAP allotment—a key indicator of high need. The funding helped support New Yorkers so they could shop for their food without relying on overwhelmed food pantries.

New York Legal Assistance Group, Inc.

More than three million New York City residents are immigrants, including an estimated 400,000 who are undocumented.

Sixty-two percent of New York City children live in a household with at least one foreign-born family member, including many in mixed-status households. Recent federal changes are triggering widespread confusion, trauma, and fear. Parents are forgoing care for their children; pediatricians report an increase in cancelled appointments, missed vaccinations, and delayed diagnoses, which puts the health of families and the whole community at risk. Immigrant parents, regardless of their status, are facing profound anxiety about being separated from their children and question who would manage their child’s health care in their absence. As a result of New York Legal Assistance Group, Inc.’s (NYLAG) advocacy, New York is one of the few states in the country that allows parents with precarious immigration status to designate a legal guardian to care for their children, an option that had historically been limited to seriously ill patients. In 2025, NYHealth awarded NYLAG a grant to scale an existing medical-legal partnership to provide legal and advance planning services for immigrant families.

Under this grant, NYLAG will expand its guardianship planning and immigrant support services in partnership with its network of 38 hospital and health care sites and community-based organizations across New York City. It will train more than 250 pro bono attorneys and host regular clinics where clients can complete guardianship and advance planning documents to ensure their children’s care. It will make its planning hotline permanent, extend hours, and reduce wait times to provide timely screening and counseling for immigrant families. NYLAG will also conduct targeted outreach and train providers to have informed conversations with families about advance planning, guardianship laws, and available pro bono legal support.

Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY)

In New York City, more than 1.8 million residents live with a documented disability.

Data suggests that adults with disabilities are four to five times more likely to experience psychological distress than those without disabilities. Despite this need, New Yorkers with disabilities face complex barriers to receiving timely and appropriate mental health care. The Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY) is filling this gap with a New York State-approved continuing education training for licensed mental health providers across the State on how to serve people with disabilities better. In 2020, CIDNY launched its “Reassurance Program,” which conducts peer and staff-led wellness calls for isolated New Yorkers with disabilities. The program screens individuals for emotional distress and assesses their health and social needs, connecting them to essential services. To date, CIDNY has provided support to 15,000 New Yorkers, more than 3,800 of whom have psychiatric disabilities, including mood, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and trauma-related disorders. To address these needs, CIDNY recently expanded the program through a pilot to integrate group-based cognitive behavioral therapy treatment. Early demand has exceeded capacity, and it is now ready to scale the model. In 2025, NYHealth awarded CIDNY a grant to expand a community-based mental health model for people with disabilities.

Under this grant, CIDNY will expand access to geographically isolated individuals and others who are disconnected from care. It will partner with mental health providers and independent living centers to identify participants and conduct annual check-in calls, offering emotional support, benefits navigation, and referrals to housing, food, and health services. The program will scale cognitive therapy-based group sessions for people with disabilities using hybrid formats and connect participants to more intensive mental health care through formal partnerships with clinics and hospitals. CIDNY will evaluate its impact and share tools and recommendations to replicate and sustain the model across New York City.

University at Buffalo (Fiscal sponsor: Research Foundation for the State University of New York)

Childhood vaccination is a great public health achievement, drastically reducing or eliminating diseases like polio and measles.

Routine childhood vaccinations prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases, reduce avoidable emergency room and hospital utilization, and save millions of lives and billions of dollars annually. New York State passed a public health law in 1966, which established immunization requirements for children attending childcare programs as well as public, private, and parochial schools. It also empowered local county health departments to promote public awareness and ensure greater access and compliance with vaccination requirements. Despite these guidelines, thousands of young New Yorkers remain unvaccinated. Inadequate vaccination rates can lead to a resurgence of preventable diseases. In New York, 17 cases of measles have emerged in 2025 as of September 4th. In 2025, NYHealth awarded the University at Buffalo (UB) a grant to expand a mobile vaccine program in Erie County and other parts of rural Western New York to increase childhood immunization rates, school readiness, and community knowledge about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Under this grant, UB will extend its mobile vaccination program by partnering with the New York State Department of Health to reach high-need areas in Erie County and other rural communities. The program will conduct grassroots outreach through community partners to raise awareness, dispel misinformation, and build trust in local communities. UB will host weekly vaccination events at accessible sites, administer vaccines to an estimated 1,500 children, and connect families with primary care providers for follow-up. The UB research team will evaluate the program using State immunization data, and share findings and tools to support replication in other high-need areas while exploring billing agreements with managed care plans to sustain the program.

Wayne County Action Program, Inc. dba Finger Lakes Community Action

More than 16% of children in the U.S. have one or more physical, cognitive, or communication developmental delays or disabilities.

Supportive early intervention services can mitigate or reverse negative outcomes if they are provided in the first three years of a child’s life. While free early intervention services are available to all eligible children with disabilities, only 24% of children, ages 0 to 5, in New York State are evaluated and referred to services. Screening disparities are even more pronounced in rural communities where there is limited access to providers, long travel distances, lack of public transportation, and inadequate referral systems. In Wayne County, where 21% of children under the age of six live in poverty, these barriers are significant. Wayne County Action Program (WCAP) and its partner network have stepped up to address these barriers in the Finger Lakes by bringing the Get Ready to GROW initiative to the region, which delivers comprehensive developmental screenings and follow-up appointments for children ages 12-60 months. In 2025, NYHealth awarded the Wayne County Action Program, Inc. dba Finger Lakes Community Action a grant to expand a comprehensive early intervention screening, navigation, and referral program.

Under this grant, WCAP will ensure young children across rural Wayne County schools receive essential developmental and health screenings and are connected to care and support services. With co-funding, WCAP will partner with a comprehensive network to expand the Get Ready to GROW program, providing screenings in schools, Head Start locations, and childcare centers, serving a total of 1,500 children. It will build an integrated referral network of early intervention services to reduce delays in care for families and coordinate with primary care and social service providers. WCAP will provide technical assistance to other school districts, and share its model through trainings and presentations at state and regional conferences.

Nonprofit Finance Fund

Federal executive orders and budget cuts are prompting policy changes, confusion, and uncertainty in New York’s health and social service nonprofit landscape.

New York’s more than 3,400 health nonprofits—including NYHealth grantees—are feeling the direct and indirect impacts of these changes in the form of budget cuts, communications requirements, rollbacks in protections for the communities they serve, and the contraction of the federal government’s role in public health. These shifts change how organizations operate, forcing them to navigate an uncertain policy and funding environment and a weakened safety net infrastructure. More than ever, nonprofits struggle to assess risk, forecast financial plans, communicate, adhere to their missions, and support staff and communities to navigate fear and uncertainty. They have been compelled to divert limited resources from serving clients to adopting contingency plans, implementing new compliance and safety measures, and intensifying advocacy efforts to protect their organizations, staff, and communities from discrimination and barriers to care. In 2025, NYHealth awarded the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) a grant to deliver free, timely technical assistance and capacity-building support to NYHealth grantees to strengthen their ability to respond and adapt to new, evolving, and unforeseen circumstances.

Under this grant, NFF will provide support for strategic budgeting and scenario planning; cash flow analysis; partnership and collaboration readiness; and financial communication.

NYHealth also awarded complementary grants to the New York City Capacity Building Collaborative and Nonprofit Support Group.

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Funding Area: Special Projects Fund