Community of Hope patients, staff, neighbors and you, our friends, came together to show their support for our Marie Reed Health Center, and their hard work has paid off! Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Muriel Bowser and Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, funds to include our Health Center in the Marie Reed Community Learning Center have been identified.
As you might know by now, the city is planning a major modernization of the Marie Reed Learning Center, which houses an elementary school, a recreation center, other services and Community of Hope’s Marie Reed Health Center. The modernization plan is great news for the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Early budgets did not clearly include funding for a facility for our beloved health center, which serves over 3,800 patients a year with medical, dental and behavioral healthcare.
So our patients and staff got to work, to make sure that the Mayor and DC Council knew just how important this health center is in the community. Over 1,000 patients and neighbors expressed their support for the Marie Reed Health Center, signing petitions in the waiting rooms and online. Patients wrote letters and testified at Council budget hearings and one even stood with a clipboard at a local grocery store to talk with neighbors about the need for the health center.
As Marie Reed patient, Debra, told the DC Council: “Marie Reed is not just a facility for the sick. It’s a place of love and care. I can tell that my well-being is important to them. At Marie Reed I feel like there is a team working to keep me healthy, and I’m the MVP!”
The powerful voices of patients like Debra were heard. The DC Council has approved a budget for the modernization plan that will include space for the Marie Reed Health Center. We are thrilled that our award-winning quality healthcare will continue to be a resource accessible to patients of all ages, incomes and backgrounds.
Thank you to all the patients and friends who made this campaign a success!
