U.S. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley announced this week that Dimock Community Health Center (DCHC) just across the Southwest Corridor Park received a $2,456,000 grant through the American Rescue Plan.
DCHC on Dimock Street in Roxbury has been serving patients from Jamaica Plain and Roxbury since 1862 when it opened as the New England Hospital for Women and Children.
Pressley said DCHC will join 12 other Community Health Centers in her 7th Congressional District in sharing a total of $56,833,875 in American Rescue Plan funds.
Dimock will use the funds to expand their COVID-19 vaccination and treatment services. The resources are part of the American Rescue Plan’s investments to expand access to vaccines in historically underserved communities.
“Throughout this pandemic and well before it, our Community Health Centers have served as a critical lifeline for our most vulnerable communities in the Massachusetts 7th and all across the Commonwealth, providing life-saving and patient-centered resources to our children, people experiencing homelessness, immigrant families and veterans,” said Pressley. “With our vaccination efforts underway, this new funding through the American Rescue Plan will go a long way toward helping our CHCs—which play a central role in working towards equitable vaccine distribution—continue their important work.”
DCHC can use the funding to expand COVID-19 vaccinations, testing and treatment for vulnerable populations; deliver preventive and primary health care services to people at higher risk for COVID-19; and expand health centers’ operational capacity during the pandemic and beyond, including modifying and improving physical infrastructure and adding mobile units.
Pressley said she has been a steadfast champion for community-based health care programs throughout her time in Congress. She is an active member of the Congressional Community Health Centers Caucus and has advocated for increased resources for Community Health Centers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DCHC has been recognized nationally as a model for the delivery of comprehensive health and human services in an urban community, DCHC provides over 19,000 people annually with convenient access to high quality, low cost health care and human services that might not otherwise be available to communities like Jamaica Plain and Roxbury.