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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Serving the Underserved: Community Health Centers Celebrate 50 Years

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Tuesday, August 11, 2015   

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – What began 50 years ago as part of President Johnson's War on Poverty is now a robust health care delivery system of Community Health Centers, serving 24 million patients nationwide.

Gerrard Jolly, national director of Community HealthCorps, says health centers provide everything from medical and dental care to behavioral and even translation services, and help remove obstacles that keep people from seeking regular care.

"Just being able to have transportation to a doctor's visit, and helping those individuals understand just how the health care system works," says Jolly. "To be able to navigate the challenges that health insurance itself often presents to people."

With more than 200 health centers in Michigan, dozens of clinics from around the state are hosting special fairs and community outreach events during National Health Center Week, running through Friday. Health centers serve an estimated one in 14 Americans, many of whom are uninsured or under-insured.

Jolly, who was in Grand Rapids to kick off a health fair at Cherry Health, says many people on Medicare and Medicaid struggle to find providers, and either go without care or end up in the emergency room. He says health centers help break that cycle by focusing on healthy habits.

"How to prevent illnesses before someone becomes sick," says Jolly, "is a huge cost savings to individuals and to the health care system overall."

According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, health center facilities offer care at a fraction of the cost of an emergency room visit, and result in fewer emergency visits to hospitals.

The centers also are the largest health-focused program for AmeriCorps, with more than 500 Community HealthCorps volunteers serving nationwide.


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