Project Grant H79SM091630

The Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services) awarded Eliot Community Human Services Inc. $499,984 on September 30, 2026, under the Center for Mental Health Services Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.532).

PROJECT TEND will build an infant and early childhood mental health system of care in Massachusetts, uniting fragmented services into one coordinated pathway for young children and families. The initiative will identify and treat mental illness during the developmental window when intervention is most effective, preventing early difficulties from progressing into serious mental illness, substance use, and chronic disease in adulthood. Services will target children birth through age 12, weighted toward birth through age five, including those at risk for, showing early signs of, or diagnosed with mental illness including serious emotional disturbance.

The project will serve 3,330 unduplicated individuals over five years: 1,450 children, 1,080 parents and caregivers, and 800 trained workforce members. Work is concentrated in high-need, under-resourced communities in Massachusetts—Worcester, New Bedford, Lynn, Lawrence, Holyoke, Chelsea, Lowell, Everett, Haverhill, and Boston—and underserved rural areas of Western Massachusetts. Place of performance is Lexington, Massachusetts. The period of performance runs from September 30, 2026, through September 29, 2031.