CHroniCles Features CHCs’ Extraordinary Histories, Honors Rich Contributions to Community Health
Newswise — NEW YORK and WASHINGTON (July 25, 2011) - The RCHN Community Health Foundation and the Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services today announced the launch of CHroniCles, a dynamic, multi-media website dedicated to the living history of the community health center movement.
CHroniCles aims to document the vibrant, varied and important stories of health centers across the country through a web-based portal of narratives, photographs, videos and other materials. The website creates a virtual tapestry, allowing viewers to pay an online visit to every community health center in the U.S., to see the richness and diversity of CHCs in urban and rural areas and to view their positive impact on the individuals and communities they serve.
“Every health center is the embodiment of its community’s aspirations for better health and health care, and each story is uniquely compelling,” said Sara Rosenbaum, J.D. Harold and Jane Hirsh Professor and Director, Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. “CHroniCles conveys the successes of each health center as well as that of a movement dedicated to improving access and providing high quality health care to all.”
The first release of the CHroniCles site (www.CHCChronicles.org) showcases materials from early contributors, as well as new material developed and recorded especially for the project. Over time the site aims to create an interactive, online portal that will permit every health center to tell its own story, in its own voice.
“The RCHN Community Health Foundation is dedicated to supporting and advancing community health centers nationally,” said Julio Bellber, president and CEO of the RCHN Community Health Foundation. “Through CHroniCles, we are able to create a virtual quilt where health centers can share their remarkable stories with a broad and diverse audience.”
“Since the nation’s first health centers opened in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and Boston, Massachusetts in 1965, the community health center program has grown to more than 1,250 centers serving more than 20 million people in every state and territory,” said Thomas van Coverden, president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers. “The success of the health center movement is the story of each and every health center, working to provide high quality care and improve the health status of their community. CHroniCles will help us tell those stories.”
About the RCHN Community Health FoundationThe RCHN Community Health Foundation, founded in October 2005, is a not-for-profit foundation whose mission is to support community health centers through strategic investment, outreach, education, and cutting-edge health policy research. The only foundation in the country dedicated to community health centers, RCHN CHF builds on health centers’ 40-year commitment to the provision of accessible, high quality, community-based healthcare services for underserved and medically vulnerable populations. For more information on RCHN CHF, visit www.rchnfoundation.org
About the Geiger Gibson / RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative:The Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy was established in 2004 and was named after human rights and health center pioneers Dr. H. Jack Geiger and Dr. Count Gibson, who founded the nation's first community health centers nearly 40 years ago in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and Boston, Massachusetts. The program focuses on the history and contributions of health centers and the major policy issues that affect health centers, their communities, and the patients that they serve. The Research Collaborative was established in 2007 with an initial gift from RCHN CHF.
Additional information about the Research Collaborative can be found online atwww.gwumc.edu/sphhs/departments/healthpolicy/ggprogram or at www.rchnfoundation.org
About the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services:Established in July 1997, the School of Public Health and Health Services brought together three longstanding university programs in the schools of medicine, business, and education that we have since expanded substantially. Today, more than 1,100 students from nearly every U.S. state and more than 40 nations pursue undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral-level degrees in public health. Our student body is one of the most ethnically diverse among the nation's private schools of public health. http://sphhs.gwumc.edu/
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