Staff Achievements

In June, Richard J. Cohen, PHMC president and CEO, was elected chair of the board of directors of the National Network of Public Health Institutes (NNPHI), the national organization convening, serving and representing the nation’s public health institutes.NNPHI membership currently encompasses 38 members in 28 states and the District of Columbia.

Roxanne Andrews, Maximizing Participation Project (MPP) employment and training specialist, was elected to the steering committee of the Philadelphia Adult Literacy Alliance in June. The steering committee’s purpose is to develop recommendations for the organizational, governance and membership structures for the alliance, and to suggest the standard operating procedures for the alliance’s governing body, meetings and membership. PHMC has operated MPP, an initiative designed to reduce the number of families who require benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), since TANF was created in 2001 in response to federal legislation.

On May 10, Elaine Fox, a leader in developing PHMC’s primary care clinics and health care for the homeless programs and former vice president of PHMC’s Specialized Health Services, received recognition from Temple University’s College of Health Professions and Social Work. During the college’s commencement ceremony, she earned the Dean’s Citation Award, the only award given at graduation, which recognizes “an individual who has made a significant contribution to the college at Temple.” At the ceremony, the dean spoke of Fox’s advocacy for advanced nursing practice, noting her achievement in gaining PHMC Health Connection recognition as a Federally Qualified Health Center. Fox retired from PHMC in the fall of 2011. You can learn more about her award by visiting the Temple website.

Grants

Interim House West recently received a two-year grant for $149,899 from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to implement Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for pregnant and parenting women in residential substance abuse treatment. DBT is a cognitive behavioral treatment that helps participants learn to better understand, regulate and settle their emotions, to improve their interpersonal skills, and to better tolerate negative feelings and feelings of distress.

On May 1, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $729 million in funding for community health centers across the nation, with $1.1 million to benefit PHMC Health Connection, a nurse-managed primary health care facility that provides a variety of services to children, teens and adults. The funds will allow PHMC Health Connection, which serves a community near Temple University’s main campus, to move two blocks from its current location to larger space. The expansion increases PHMC Health Connection’s examination rooms from three to 12. Additionally, the funds will help to integrate behavioral health services with the program’s current primary care offerings and increase patient capacity. PHMC Health Connection currently serves 2,000 patients per year. The expansion will allow it to reach up to an estimated 8,000 patients.

The Joseph J. Peters Institute (JJPI) received a two-year grant for $130,000 from the van Ameringen Foundation to support a clinical evaluator position for the Child and Adolescent Program (CAP). CAP provides sexual abuse prevention, assessment and outpatient treatment services to child survivors of sexual abuse and their families. With the additional evaluator, JJPI can decrease the wait time for children who have been sexually abused to enter into treatment and can increase the total number of children JJPI serves each year. JJPI also recently received a three-year grant for $30,000 from the Patricia Kind Family Foundation to provide CAP with operating support.

In March, PHMC’s Out-of-School Time (OST) program was awarded a $15,500 Empowerment Grant from the Motorola Mobility Foundation, which recognizes nonprofit organizations that leverage mobile technology and applications to help build stronger communities. PHMC serves as the intermediary for 180 Out-of-School Time programs funded by the City of Philadelphia. Since 2009, all PHMC-managed OST programs have implemented a project-based learning approach to ensure youth-driven, rigorous programming that exposes youth to new learning and develops 21st century skills. To support programs with planning and implementing quality projects, PHMC has developed a range of workshops and coaching opportunities, including convening a small learning community cohort. The grant provides additional online resources to reach staff that cannot easily attend trainings or dedicate the time necessary for coaching, by using a combination of recorded tutorials on the OST Project-Based Learning Blog and video records of cohort members’ progress to aid in coaching and instruction.

On April 24, Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of Independence Blue Cross Foundation, presented staff and patients at Rising Sun Health Center with a check for $50,000 as part of the foundation’s Blue Safety Net program. The initiative supports nonprofit, privately funded health clinics in medically underserved communities in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising Sun Health Center provides high-quality, affordable health care to patients of all ages, regardless of insurance status, administered by its staff of nurse practitioners and other health professionals. In winter 2013, Rising Sun Health Center plans to move from its current location at Adams Avenue and Rising Sun Avenue to a larger facility nearby in the One & Olney Plaza.

New Developments

Staff, board, supporters and residents of PHMC’s affiliate The Bridge Adolescent Treatment and Youth Opportunity Program celebrated the July 24, 2012, groundbreaking for a new, specially designed home. The state-of-the-art facility at 1100 Adams Avenue in Philadelphia will house The Bridge’s residential and outpatient programs, as well as its licensed private school, with doors scheduled to open in July 2013.

Every week, participants in PHMC’s Sisters Informing Healing Living Empowering (SIHLE) project produce The Hype. Originally distributed through YouTube, on May 24 the talk show for, by and about young women began airing every Thursday at 6 p.m. on Comcast Chanel 66. It also airs on the iFame channel launched on ROKU, a wireless TV streaming player that streams entertainment to TVs via the Internet. This expands The Hype’s reach to 3 million households across the US, Canada and Ireland, as well as to those who stream it online and through downloadable apps. The Hype features youth from the Philadelphia area talking about health and wellness, fashion and beauty, lifestyles and relationships, and current events. The SIHLE Project provides monthly healthy lifestyles workshops aimed at reducing HIV sexual risk behaviors, improving personal communication skills, identifying and maintaining healthy relationships and promoting gender and ethnic pride among young African American women between the ages of 14 and 18.