Late last year, the Highrise Health Alliance (HHA) received a $100,000 grant to further its work supporting MPHA resident health outcomes. After spending the last several months listening to residents’ priorities, the HHA is readying its plan to deploy this grant on a series of new and existing programs and initiatives that address residents’ top needs and concerns.
The Highrise Health Alliance is a cross-sector partnership between MPHA and the City of Minneapolis Health Department working to improve the health outcomes of MPHA’s high-rise residents. The $100,000 was granted to HHA members back in late 2023. In addition to the funds, the group was selected to participate in a nine-month leadership development program focused on public health called the Public Health Regenerative Leadership Synergy (PHEARLESS) initiative.
Over the last few months, MPHA resident leader Shirley Brown, MPHA Assistant Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives Rachel Almburg, and HHA members Jennie Meinz and Abdulkadir G. Mohamed have hosted MPHA resident listening sessions and workshops to identify resident health priorities. At the top of that list is improving communication around mental health between residents, building management, and on-site Volunteers of America staff. Additionally, residents expressed wanting additional support for new resident move-ins, especially for those coming out of homelessness and/or housing programs that offered supplemental mental health services.
Hearing this feedback from residents, HHA, through the PHEARLESS grant, is funding three initiatives to meet these needs. It will fund behavioral health peer support groups across at least seven buildings, social connection events initiated by residents, and improvements to new resident move-in materials, staff trainings, and regularly distributed relevant heath information to all residents.
Specifically, more than half of the grant will be directed to continuing behavioral health peer support groups across seven buildings led by Neighborhood HealthSource, MN Recovery Connection, and Volunteers of America. These support groups are already in place and are cultivating ongoing relationships. Funding these groups will ensure the continuation of care as existing grant funding expires. The existing behavioral health peer support groups will not see any lapse of care with the funding source change. Instead, programming will continue as usual for its beneficiaries.
About a fourth of the grant will support social connection events to aid community building and improve mental health. This portion of the funding will work as a mini-grant process, allowing residents to generate event ideas and be allocated funds to carry out the idea. Events may include sponsoring a variety of things from an educational speaker visit or yoga class to bingo or crafts. The HHA plans to start the mini grant application and dispersing process in 2025.
Additionally, small portions of the funding will also support revamping new resident move-in materials and provide supportive behavioral health resources, trainings for staff, service providers, residents on select topics (trauma informed, crisis response, etc.), and the regular distribution of general behavioral health informational resources.
The $100,000 grant covers the cost of programming through the end of 2025. After 2025, the HHA is hoping to fund the programs leveraging existing partnerships and new grant opportunities. With the continuum of programming being a high priority for HHA, future funding options are already being pursued.
