GREAT GRANTS

Local and national funders are doing great work around women and girl’s issues and W&G wants local funders to be aware of some of the great grants awarded recently.

Boston Women’s Fund --- $15,000
The City School in Dorchester is a learning community where young people become leaders for a more equitable, safe, and just Boston. Its newest program, Rose from Concrete (RFC), provides leadership development, healing, resource referral, education, and job skills to court and/or Department of Youth Services-involved young women. Through examination of the criminal justice system and the political context and systems that impact their lives, young women are guided to develop leadership skills and tools for social change. 

Women’s Sports Foundation --- $150,000 plus
November 27, 2007, the foundation launched GoGirlGo! Boston, a program that supports parents and girl-serving organizations who want to get inactive girls to participate in regular physical activity and keep currently active girls ages 8-18 from dropping out of physical activity.

Charles H. Farnsworth Trust --- $30,000
(administered by The Medical Foundation)
In 2006, the Charles H. Farnsworth Trust’s Aging Policy Research Fellowship Program at The Medical Foundation provided a fellowship to Sara Pinar Bilir, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Health Policy at Harvard University. Bilir’s research, entitled “Cost-effectiveness Analysis for Low Bone Mass Treatment,” will improve upon past work analyzing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of various prevention and treatment options for osteoporosis by modeling prevention and treatment options alone and in combination with current exercise programs.

Osteoporosis, or low bone mineral density, affects between 4-6 percent of men and 13-50 percent of older U.S. women, increasing by age. Determining the best policies to prevent and treat this condition for varied populations is a complex question with the range of treatments for osteoporosis and its precursor, osteopenia, varying widely in cost, effectiveness, and side effects. Formalizing the effects of an exercise component with each medical treatment has not yet been considered though exercise is widely known to prevent loss of bone mass. Bilir believes the exercise components of this analysis may have particularly important implications for national policy, as Medicare does not currently cover membership in preventive exercise programs.