National Health Center Week, August 8-14, is devoted to reaching out to the public with the message that health care is accessible to all.
Forty-five years ago the first Community Health Centers were started in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and Boston, Massachusetts, by two tireless advocates for civil and human rights - Drs. H. Jack Geiger and Count Gibson. Today, over 1,200 health centers serve more than 17 million persons in 8,000 urban and rural medically underserved communities across the nation.
President Obama declared his support for our nation's health centers by issuing a Presidential Proclamation last Friday recognizing August 8 - 14, 2010 as National Health Center Week. And health centers across the country have joined in the week-long festivities, celebrating this year’s theme – "America's Health Centers: Turning the Vision into Reality."