News
Over $1.75M in Grants Received
The Wright Center for Community Health Receives Grants for Over $1.75M from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
The Wright Center for Community Health recently received a pair of grants from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation to help establish a primary care practice in the city’s South Side neighborhood to treat previously underserved patients.
The two grants, totaling $1.75 million, supported the startup of the practice at 501 S. Washington Ave., which offers patients a single location to access comprehensive primary care services, including medical, behavioral and dental care and addiction/recovery services. The practice opened to patients in early December. The site also serves as a hub for The Wright Center’s administrative and graduate medical education activities.
The Weinberg Foundation awarded a $950,000 capital grant to assist in converting the site, a former warehouse, into a clinical primary care space with 30 exam rooms. Six of the exam rooms are dedicated to infectious disease care and the practice also houses four dental operatories. This grant also covered medical equipment, such as ultrasound machines, EKGs and AEDs, and other office necessities.
Simultaneously, the Weinberg Foundation provided an operating grant of $800,000 to be used over two years to support much-needed healthcare provider positions, including a pediatrician, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, a dentist and a psychiatrist.
The new practice is expected to annually treat more than 7,000 patients, including underinsured, uninsured and low-income individuals, regardless of a person’s ability to pay.
The Weinberg Foundation, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the United States, is dedicated to meeting the basic needs of people experiencing poverty. In 2020, the Foundation will provide approximately $130 million in grant activity supporting nonprofits, primarily in the US and Israel, which provide direct services in the areas of Housing, Health, Jobs, Education, and Community Services. Grants support organizations that serve a range of populations, including older adults, women at risk and their children, people with disabilities, and veterans, as well as the Jewish community.
Northeast Pennsylvania is one of the foundation’s “priority communities.” The foundation’s prior support has enabled The Wright Center to enhance the oral care clinic at its Mid Valley Practice in Jermyn, and to expand its school-based health center program. Grant funding also allowed The Wright Center for Community Health to successfully attain designation last year as a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike.
The Scranton Practice is open Monday through Friday. Appointments can be made by calling 570-941-0630.
