Donor Impact – June
Highlights of Recent Grant Awards and Donations
Generous financial support from corporations and charitable foundations is funding SBCHC programs that are having lasting and tangible effects for our patients and members of the communities we serve. Here are a few of the recent ones we have received:
Bayer/Direct Relief grant award allows SBCHC to extend education about family planning options for vulnerable residents.
From a partnership between Bayer and Direct Relief, SBCHC is one of only four recipients of a Community Health Award: Strengthening Access and Family Planning Services in the US Safety-Net grant. The award furthers SBCHC’s efforts to decrease barriers to contraceptive care and culturally appropriate family planning services in underserved communities, thereby increasing the number of vulnerable patients who receive them. By expanding the health center’s current outreach and education efforts, the grant helps SBCHC deliver contraceptive information to communities with high rates of teen pregnancy, unintended pregnancy, and/or maternal morbidity. The grant helps fund a Community Health Worker (CHW), as part of the Community Engagement Team, who perform recalls with post-partum OB patients to check on their status and schedule a follow-up appointment where they can receive counseling, education about family planning options, and contraceptive services. The CHW also travels into the community with SBCHC’s Mobile Health Units to provide counseling, education, and contraceptive services in medically underserved areas and leverage telehealth platforms as well.
Good Rx funds contraception education and supplies to prevent unplanned pregnancies
SBCHC received a generous grant award from Good Rx to fortify our current programs and extend our capacity to offer contraception services for women most likely to experience an unintended pregnancy. Our health center was originally established over 19 years ago to open access to Women’s Health Services for low-income, uninsured, and medically underserved residents in Spring Branch and West Houston. As a long-standing champion for easily accessible women’s health services, SBCHC provides women in need detailed education regarding their contraception options and help them select family planning resources that best suit their families’ needs.
In 2022 the Texas Tribune reported, “While teenage birth rates have declined significantly across the country in recent decades, Texas remains above the national average, consistently ranking in the top 10 states. Out of all births in Texas, around 6% were teen births in 2019 and 2020. And a startling proportion of teenagers who gave birth in Texas in 2020 – more than 1 in 6 – already had at least one other child.” Every year, SBCHC serves between 100-200 pregnant teenagers and parenting youth (ages 16-24), and so with this award, we hope to prevent teen pregnancy in our area and positively impact the lives of the parenting youth we serve by empowering them to manage their sexual and reproductive health as much possible.
Rockwell Fund awards grant to make Well Woman exams more accessible
The Rockwell Foundation, Inc., awarded SBCHC a grant to assist women in overcoming financial and social barriers to accessing preventative Well Woman exams by providing up to 12 free exams events in the next year, serving a total of at least 150 women. These Well Woman exam events will distribute educational materials and hygiene supplies, and when necessary, SBCHC will provide transportation for women who would otherwise not be able to travel to the events. Through these events, participating women will be able to discuss their health concerns to a dedicated provider who can then in turn recommend them for additional services, offering them a Medical Home and access to a variety of social programs to improve their overall well-being. Overall, this generous award from the Rockwell Foundation will allow SBCHC to make Well Woman exams accessible to women who may not have otherwise been able to receive regular care, to encourage women in our area to adopt SBCHC as a supportive Medical Home, and to empower women to take control of their health so they may live longer, healthier lives.