The goal of the AmeriCorps Intermediary Program is to increase the reach of AmeriCorps services within BMC's Pediatrics Department and throughout the hospital, thus strengthening our patient population's access to healthcare and health-related resources. We are currently partnering with the following programs:
Children’s HealthWatch
Children’s HealthWatch (CHW) is an ongoing multisite effort to produce non-partisan, original, and timely policy-relevant research on the health impact of food insecurity and associated hardships on impoverished families and their infants, toddlers, and preschoolers (patients in early childhood).
This research influences system leaders and the policies and interventions decisionmakers can make to effectively prevent and mitigate the health and economic impact of these circumstances — as well as drive systemic change to address their disproportionate impact on communities of color.
The EASE Clinic
The EASE Clinic, embedded within Pediatric Primary Care, aims to support parents and pediatric providers regarding the special education needs of children with concerns about or diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Intellectual Disability (ID), and Learning Disability (LD).
The EASE Clinic was founded in August 2017, and as of 2025 has served more than 500 children from more than 100 families. The clinic co-leads are bicultural and bilingual (in Haitian Kreyol and Spanish).
An integral part of the clinic is supporting the family's quest to understand the needs of their children and navigate the special education process. Through talks and 1:1 consults, the EASE Clinic supports primary care providers in understanding the special education process so that they can better disseminate this knowledge to families - improving overall pediatric patient care.
The Grow Clinic for Children
BMC's Grow Clinic was founded by Dr. Debbie Frank in response to the increasing number of children in Boston who were underweight and experiencing Failure to Thrive (FTT), also known as Growth Flattening. Research has demonstrated that prolonged malnutrition during early childhood can lead to irreversible cognitive impairment, making early intervention critical.
The clinic’s multidisciplinary team specializes in serving families with young children — from birth to 6 years old — who are at risk of or experiencing FTT, with the goal of preventing long-term cognitive delays.
Understanding of the root causes of FTT has evolved over time, but the demographics of patients have remained largely consistent, with low-income families being the most affected. These families often face a complex array of challenges, including food insecurity, immigration status concerns, housing instability, teen pregnancy, and parental mental health disorders, all of which contribute to the prevalence of FTT.
The Grow Clinic is dedicated to addressing these interconnected issues by connecting families with vital community resources that can alleviate the factors contributing to FTT, such as food insecurity and lack of access to stable housing and childcare. In addition to providing these wrap-around services, the clinic also offers nutritional education, including prenatal guidance for expecting parents, to help prevent FTT during the critical early stages of a child's development.
Pediatric Neurology Program
The Pediatric Neurology Program at Boston Medical Center is dedicated to providing comprehensive care for children with neurological disorders. The department offers a wide range of services, including diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management of conditions such as epilepsy, headaches, developmental delays, and neuromuscular disorders.
BMC's Pediatric Neurology team is comprised of highly skilled specialists who work closely with other pediatric subspecialties to deliver integrated, patient-centered care. The team is committed to advancing the field through research and education, ensuring that patients receive the most up-to-date and effective treatments available.
StreetCred
In 2016, Boston Medical Center launched StreetCred, one of the first hospital-based financial stability programs in the nation. Housed in BMC Pediatrics, StreetCred offers free economic mobility services to low-income families receiving pediatric care.
The pediatric primary care clinic within the Department of Pediatrics serves 14,000 patients annually. Of the children StreetCred has served in this clinic, 54 percent live below the Federal Poverty Level (compared to the Massachusetts state average of 13 percent) and a majority come from the Boston areas of Mattapan, Dorchester, Roxbury and Hyde Park - neighborhoods historically considered to be the most underserved in the city.
Teen and Tot Program
BMC's Teen and Tot Program was founded more than two decades ago to provide unique support to teenaged birthing parents. The program works with individuals who give birth to children at age 20 or younger. Many families who receive clinic services self-identify as Black or Hispanic.
Currently serving over 200 patients, the program uses a dyadic model of medical care and provides wraparound services, including family planning, mental health support, parenting support, and limited case management. These wraparound services are intended to help families achieve their health, education, and employment goals and mitigate economic instability.
Vital Village Networks
Vital Village Networks (VVN) works to solve intractable social inequities in health and educational outcomes by building local community capacity to promote health and wellbeing through peer-led, community-driven strategies, research, data-sharing, and collective action.
The Vital Village neighborhoods of focus — Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury — have the highest percentages of children aged 0–5 years old (20, 11, and 11 percent, respectively), and have the highest concentration of children living in poverty within all of Massachusetts (42 percent).