MEDIA CONTACT

Sarah Gonet

Vice President of Development

508-944-6096/sarahgonet@bamsi.org 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BAMSI Receives $38,000 in Support of CLAS Efforts Within BAMSI’s CCBHC

BROCKTON, MA (March 15, 2024) – BAMSI is proud to announce that it has been awarded $38,000 in funding from the Liberty Mutual Foundation.

The funding will enable BAMSI to implement all policies and practices associated with the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS), a set of 15 steps intended to advance health equity, improve quality, and help eliminate health care disparities. This organization-wide initiative involves several components, including a marketing audit, translating documents and signage, hiring multilingual staff, training and professional development, a CLAS self-assessment, and creating a Community Advisory Board.

“BAMSI’s mission is to meet people where they are, and that includes providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services. We are grateful for partners like Liberty Mutual who support our commitment to diversity, without whom we could not do this work,” said BAMSI Executive Vice President, Ulea Lago.

By enhancing our adherence to National CLAS Standards, BAMSI is working to ensure we provide culturally responsive services and care for the racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse communities we serve.

In addition, Liberty Mutual’s funding will support the translation component of this project in which BAMSI will hire TransPerfect to translate documents regularly used across all programs into Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole, Brazilian Portuguese, and South American Spanish.

We aim to complete this organization-wide initiative by the end of 2024. Throughout the audit, BAMSI will identify materials that need to be translated. These informational materials in multiple languages will increase our programs’ capacity to meet clients in their most comfortable settings, access diverse clients, meet more individuals’ needs, and ultimately improve healthcare outcomes for underserved clients. By becoming CLAS compliant, BAMSI will also improve outcomes for the many organizations we refer our clients to.

About BAMSI:

BAMSI is a private 501c3 nonprofit human service organization that helps people live more independent and healthful lives by providing a comprehensive network of services addressing developmental and intellectual disabilities, mental illness, and substance use, and the social determinants of health such as housing and nutrition. This past year, over 50,000 individuals and families across five Massachusetts counties received personalized care from one of BAMSI’s nearly 1,600 dedicated and compassionate employees.