Health Centers Celebrate More Than 50 Years of Service

Outside of the North Charleston Community Center, several groups of girls practice cheerleading under the watchful eye of their mothers.

Some of the families at the center today came because of a community outreach fair organized by Family Care West Virginia.

The idea is to help people from the neighborhood access some of the preventative service Family Care offers. Many families in this community are low income and struggle to access affordable healthcare. That’s where the health centers come in.

Family Care is one of 31 health center organizations in WV serving around 411,000 people. Nationwide health centers have been around for more than 50 years and serve the poorest of the poor by addressing issues such as nutrition, homelessness, addiction and poverty.

Nationwide, small neighborhood health centers provide care to more than 24 million low income people.

At Family Care in Charleston about 30-50 people showed up for the outreach fair over the course of two days. The fair was one of many National Health Center Week events that are being held around the country this week.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.