Marblehead Counseling Center (MCC) recently learned it was one of the recipients of $120,000 through the Cummings Foundation’s major annual grants program. Founded by Winchester natives Bill and Joyce Cummings in 1986, the foundation has been giving back to nonprofit organizations that their commercial real estate business Cummings Properties manages.
Only 150 out of 630 eligible applicants in Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties were selected by the foundation this year. MCC Business Manager Lisa Cohen explained what receiving the grant means to her and for the future of the center.
“They are a huge foundation, to have been a recipient of one of their grants is a great honor and very prestigious,” Cohen said. “Other organizations look to see who Cummings is funding.”
Cohen noted how the center plans to have the grant assist in facilitating the process of aspiring clinicians become licensed. With the mental-health crisis currently ongoing in Marblehead and nationwide, creating more caretakers is at the forefront for the Counseling Center.
“Once they graduate with a master’s degree, they are still not licensed,” Cohen explained. “They must complete a certain number of hours of clinical supervised training… we provide that fertile training ground for them to become fully licensed clinicians.”
Further ensuring the development of licensed providers is the Cummings Foundation’s support of North Shore Community Cares, which is responsible for providing the MCC and others with recent graduates they can then put on the path to a professional career.
Cummings Foundation Grants Manager Andrew Bishop explained what made the MCC a great candidate to receive funding this year.
“We support nonprofits that primarily focus on education, health care, social justice, and human services so obviously they were a fit,” Bishop said.
He revealed that the foundation uses a community-review process that includes volunteers from many local communities, as opposed to it simply choosing applicants. The volunteers reach out to the applicants personally to help in making an educated decision as well.
Bishop attributed the pandemic for shining a light on the mental health crisis, and is ecstatic to be in a position to help in ending the shortage of mental-health providers.
“We hope that as a result of this grant, we can make a positive contribution towards Marblehead Counseling Center and other organizations in addressing mental health,” he said.