AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation Awards $645,000 in Grants to Organizations Across Pennsylvania to Mitigate Adverse Childhood Experiences

The AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation awarded grants to six organizations throughout the state to help fund programs and services that help children and families achieve health and wellness.

The Community Grocer, Greater Philadelphia YMCA, Impact Services, Penn IGNITE, Pennsylvania Partnership for Children, and the University of Pittsburgh received a combined $645,000.

The grants are funding a variety of programs that incorporate the prevention and mitigation of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

The CDC classifies ACEs as potentially traumatic childhood events or aspects of a child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding that may lead to negative effects on health. However, through interventions and protective factors, impacts on a child’s well-being can improve.

“The AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation is dedicated to helping organizations working to prevent and disrupt the potentially harmful effects of ACEs,” said Lauren Maloney, the director of the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation. “Each of these nonprofits is collaborating with the communities it serves in a different way, but all are working towards the shared goal of empowering families.”

The Community Grocer: Improving Health and Community in Southwest Philadelphia through Increased Food Access

The Community Grocer (TCG), a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that provides nutritious and affordable meal kits for low-income residents, received a $150,000 grant from the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation to transform a property in the Cobbs Creek section of Philadelphia into a corner store and community space. The property also includes a workforce development kitchen that will serve hot meals to people who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

By prioritizing healthy food access and community development, TCG promotes child and family health and resilience.

“Our partnership with the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation exemplifies how innovative collaboration can address systemic challenges, like food insecurity and health inequity,” said Eli Moraru, a cofounder of TCG. “We’re building a sustainable model that empowers individuals, strengthens communities, and transforms lives. This partnership is a testament to the power of collective action across the system to create meaningful and lasting change.”

The Greater Philadelphia YMCA: The Maternal Wellness Initiative

The Greater Philadelphia YMCA received a $25,000 AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation grant and additional support from the Independence Blue Cross Foundation to pilot a Maternal Wellness Initiative across five locations.

The program helps women during and post-pregnancy through accessible programs, services, and community-based spaces. The Initiative aims to bolster family health by connecting participants to maternal care, mental health care and postpartum care.

“This partnership represents the heart of our mission at the Y — supporting healthier lives through meaningful connection,” said Shaun Elliott, President & CEO of the Greater Philadelphia YMCA. “Strong communities begin with strong families, and that starts with mothers and their children. We're grateful to the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation for its generosity in bringing this vital Maternal Wellness program to life. It’s a powerful opportunity to help new moms prioritize both their mental and physical health, and to give families the strongest possible start."

Impact Services: Reclaiming Community Spaces for Residents

Impact Services Corp., a nonprofit serving the Kensington area of Philadelphia, received a $150,000 grant to help establish a sanctuary space for children in McPherson Square Park, promoting personal development for both kids and parents while enhancing the community’s ability to control its own development.

“Impact’s success recognizes and actuates ‘power-with’ partners to achieve our common goals,” said Casey O’Donnell, Impact Services CEO. “Generous funding from the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation is enabling Impact to strengthen our services to children and families in the Kensington section of Philadelphia with a focus on refining community-based interventions to address the effects of stress and adversity throughout the lives of neighbors. We are grateful for the support from and partnership with the Foundation team.”

The work will also address the impact of the opioid crisis and related community violence.

PA Partnerships for Children: Improving Children’s Health Statewide

With a $100,000 grant from the Foundation, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children (PPC) will supplement efforts specific to child and perinatal health contained within Thriving PA. The goal of this statewide campaign is to ensure each mother and child in Pennsylvania has the opportunity for affordable, quality health care access.

“Generous support from the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation enables us to advance critical children's health policy work and ensure that every child in the commonwealth has the opportunity to thrive,” said Kari King, President and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children. “We are deeply grateful for the Foundation’s partnership in our shared goal of creating healthier futures for children.”

The centerpiece of this work for PPC has been reducing the uninsured rate for children in the Commonwealth and increasing child vaccination rates. In addition, the project scope includes other areas of the Thriving PA campaign — improving perinatal health, improving childhood nutrition, promoting evidence-based home visiting services, and Early Intervention services.

Penn IGNITE: Researching the Impact of Community Investment

The AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation made a $150,000 commitment to support the Penn IGNITE Kids study, an extension of the Penn IGNITE study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant funds a randomized, controlled trial of concentrated investment in Black neighborhoods across the City of Philadelphia to address structural racism as a fundamental cause of poor health among children.

“We are changing the environments where children and families live through vacant lot greening, tree planting, and litter pickup. We are also giving families critical economic resources to support their children’s health and development through financial counseling, micro-grants, connection to benefits, and tax preparation assistance,” said Aditi Vasan, MD, MSHP, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “With support from the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation, we are thrilled to be able to not only intervene on key social determinants of child health but also rigorously measure the results of our interventions. We hope to build the evidence base needed to implement, scale, and sustain these kinds of multi-faceted ‘big push’ interventions in other cities and communities in the future.”

The University of Pittsburgh: Tailoring Evidence-Based Interventions to Families’ Strengths and Needs

A $70,000 AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation grant went to the University of Pittsburgh to fund its Center for Parents and Children through the Early Childhood Collaborative of the Pittsburgh Study. Staff work in the community to engage families with young children facing high levels of ACEs through evidence-based parenting programs. The study tracks children’s progress annually through age 4 to ensure that programs continue to align with family strengths and challenges.

Engagement Specialists are highly visible members of the local community, screening parents of children aged 0-4 at birthing hospitals, pediatric clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers and local offices of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children — better known as the WIC program.

“We are most grateful for the AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation’s continued support of our work to make evidence-based programs more accessible to families and provide families with a choice of programs tailored to their specific strengths and challenges. By specifically providing support to our engagement specialists, the Foundation is truly making a difference in connecting families to programs they find helpful for supporting their young children’s development,” said Professor Daniel Shaw, Director of the Early Child Collaborative of The Pittsburgh Study and Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh.