PROVIDENCE – Two federal grants will help Providence Community Health Centers move its Allen Berry clinic to a new, 60,000-square-foot facility on a brownfields site at 369 Prairie Ave. in South Providence, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed announced last week.
Reed and U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse secured a $241,000 grant for the center in the 2008 federal appropriations bill. In addition, the center has received a $400,000 federal brownfields grant to support the project.
The clinic will be built on the former site of Federated Lithographers, a company that made metalworking machine tools, cans and books. The brownfields award will be used to remove and dispose of contaminated soil, conduct groundwater monitoring, and support community involvement activities, according to the news release.
The new clinic will be part of a larger state-of-the-art urban industrial park slated to also include commercial and retail operations, as well as green space. The Allen Berry clinic currently operates in a smaller, rented space. The new building is expected to allow it to serve more people and add services.
“This is a smart investment of federal resources that will save taxpayers money in the long run and ensure that more Rhode Islanders have access to quality, preventative care,” Reed said in a news release. “Not all of the clients who go to PCHC have health insurance, but everyone who comes through their doors gets the medical attention, care and respect they deserve. I am pleased to have secured this funding, and I applaud the outstanding doctors, nurses, and administrators here at Providence Community Health Centers who continue to help make our community a better and healthier place.”
Providence Community Health Centers was established in 1968 and provides primary health services, including prenatal care, pediatrics, adolescent medicine, adult medicine, and senior care to more than 35,000 patients at five health clinics around the city. It also operates a school-based program and a dental clinic, and it is the largest provider of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program in Rhode Island, with 6,500 participants.
Merrill Thomas, CEO and executive director of Providence Community Health Centers, noted in the announcement that Reed has supported health care in the state not only by securing funding, but also through his “national leadership” fighting for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SChIP) – which funds expanded coverage through RIte Care.
Thomas said the impact of the grants “will be multiplied many times over,” because they will not only produce a new health center, but also site renovations “that will be the catalyst for additional community investment and redevelopment.”
For more information about Providence Community Health Centers, visit www.providencechc.org.
