Through our triennial Community Needs Assessment conducted in 2018, Affinia Healthcare identified areas of North St. Louis County as communities where unmet primary health care services are prevalent. Thus, consistent with our mission, formulation of service delivery to address these needs was included in our Strategic Plan. As part of the decision making process, Affinia Healthcare looked to collaboration with community organizations with synergistic missions and located in accessible locations for as wide a range of the underserved St. Louis North County community residents as possible. Therefore, Affinia Healthcare welcomed an invitation to collaborate with the YMCA of Greater St. Louis (the ‘Emerson YMCA’), resulting in plans to construct and operate a new community health center at 3390 Pershall Road, located in the City of Ferguson, a municipality in North St. Louis County. In the new facility, to be located adjacent to the Emerson YMCA, we will offer a wide range of primary care services in highly-underserved areas of the St. Louis region, including medical, dental, behavioral health for children and adults, substance use treatment services, Women Infant and Children (WIC) nutrition services, and other enabling services. The facility will be approximately 15,000 square feet in size, including at least 23 medical exam rooms, 4 dental operatories, two behavioral health exam rooms and two Medication Assisted Treatment exam rooms, and open for services Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:30 pm, providing substantial access to comprehensive primary care services for an estimated 11,078 individual patients (per year) who live in ZIP Code areas surrounding this facility, and addressing poor health care indicators plaguing these communities. The collaboration with the YMCA would be a unique model, whereby the two organizations would work together in reaching out to the community and facilitate engagement into healthcare services and re
moving a host of significant barriers to care. Currently, over one fourth of the members at the Emerson YMCA receive financial support. Also, the proposed health center is within the St. Louis Promise Zone area which includes parts of North St. Louis City and North St. Louis County, designated in 2015 as a part of a federal program intended to increase economic activity, improve educational outcomes, reduce serious and violent crime, invest in transformative development, and improve health and wellness in high-poverty urban, rural, and tribal communities. This model could be replicated throughout communities across the country where the YMCA offers services, in otherwise disenfranchised communities. The new health center will provide comprehensive primary care health services to residents of communities in the 63135, 63134, 63140, 63033, 63031 and 63042 ZIP Code areas. These areas rank among the lowest in average household incomes in Missouri, where according to the UDS Mapper 33% of the area residents have incomes below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), ranging from 73% of the residents in the ZIP Code 63140 to 27% in 63031.