Dozens of community members turned out Aug. 31 for an open house to celebrate the launch of Howard Brown Health's 63rd Street clinic in Englewood.
The clinic, which opened in May, is part of an effort by Howard Brown Health to expand its services in additional locations throughout the city, relieving many patients of having to travel to its Sheridan Road location and alleviating the patient load there. An additional North Side location in Rogers Park is already seeing patients as well.
"I'm so pleased to see Howard Brown on the South Side of Chicago," said radio host and former Ald. Clifford Kelley, who emceed the welcoming program. "We certainly appreciate what you are doing."
Howard Brown Health President and CEO David Munar added that the organization was "excited to extend our system of care to our patients who need it" in the neighborhood.
"We're aspiring to make sure that our work on the South Side is equivalent to our work on the North Side," he said.
Site medical director Maya Green, M.D., spoke about the importance of neighborhood engagement.
"All of us are shaped by our life experiences and how we engage with our community," Green said. "Those factors contribute to who we are because they serve us at the times at the day when we're not at work, when we're not in an environment where we have to put on a facade. Our communities make us who we are and they encourage us to grow."
Green further reflected on being able to go to work for the part of town in which she grew up.
"I'm an African American woman from the South Side of Chicago," she said. "… Many of you were raised in communities like I've been, so many of you have had a front-row seat to the inequalities that have impacted to social determinants of health, those things that play into the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, depression—which we don't talk about a lot—and infection. In Englewood and many communities of color, those things have drastic impacts on who we are. That's why I'm glad Howard Brown is here to serve us—mentally, physically and on the social level that is very important in healthcare."
The new clinic is part of an aggressive expansion by Howard Brown Health following its designation in 2015 as a Federally Qualified Health Clinic, which allowed it to compete for several additional grants. The organization additionally has seen many new patients thanks to the Affordable Care Act.
The 63rd Street clinic was previously an HIV clinic operated by the Chicago Department of Public Health ( CDPH ). CDPH outsourced management of several facilities after numerous infrastructure challenges; clinics in Uptown, Humboldt Park and South Chicago are now being managed by University of Illinois at Chicago.
Also speaking at the Aug. 31 opening were Michael Peery of Len Gar Media and Pastor Corey Brooks of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, who gave an invocation.
