UF Mobile Outreach Clinic’s new maternal health unit wins $1.2 million grant
University of Florida (UF) Health News
By Bill Levesque
Gainesville, Florida — The University of Florida Mobile Outreach Clinic was awarded a $1.2 million grant recently by the nonprofit Direct Relief and its Fund for Health Equity to establish a new mobile clinic providing maternal health care.
The new clinic is a collaboration between the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic and the UF College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The clinic, expected to be operational in the fall, will provide crucial health services to underserved communities in Alachua and surrounding counties, especially in rural areas, focused on mothers and their families.
The grant is made possible by the CVS Health Foundation.
“Direct Relief and their donors are just amazing,” said Kim Lynch, administrative director of the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic. “We are so grateful for their continuing generosity and support, which makes our work possible. As we are 90% grant funded, it is so important to have partners who allow us to bring health care out to those without health insurance in the communities where they live.”
The two-year grant allows the program to buy a 38-foot recreational vehicle retrofitted with two exam rooms, a waiting area, lab space, and a wheelchair lift. It also helps pay staff, including clinicians and community health workers. These health workers have close ties to the community, help facilitate access to services, and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.
The grant will also help fund birth, postpartum and lactation training and counseling, in addition to supporting community listening sessions, said Adetola Louis-Jacques, M.D., the maternal mobile outreach clinic’s medical director and an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
“By meeting families where they are and creating with the community pregnancy programs that address their medical care and social determinants of health, we hope to reduce maternal child health disparities in the communities we serve and help families thrive,” said Louis-Jacques.
Direct Relief is a humanitarian agency based in Santa Barbara, California, that provides medical assistance and disaster relief in the United States and abroad. The clinic’s grant is one of $8 million in grants announced by Direct Relief.
“Direct Relief is committed to getting funding and support directly to agencies doing equity work in their communities,” said Michelle Nall, M.P.H., ANP-BC, the assistant medical director of the UF Mobile Outreach Clinic. “Their support has elevated the level of care we can provide our patients, and I am thrilled to continue our collaboration with them.”
The charity’s Fund for Health Equity mobilizes financial resources for organizations focused on eliminating health disparities, including social determinants of health.
“The latest round of more than $8 million in grants … is the most recent infusion of funding for organizations deeply committed to eliminating health disparities and improving health care quality in their communities,” said Byron Scott, Direct Relief’s chief operating officer and co-chair for the Fund for Health Equity. “Direct Relief is proud to support and grateful for the work they do every day.”
In 2022, the UF Health Mobile Outreach Clinic received a $250,000 grant from Direct Relief to add a mobile unit with an exam room.
The Women’s Giving Circle of the Community Foundation of North Central Florida also donated $100,000 earlier this summer toward the new clinic. That grant by Women’s Giving Circle donors is the first the group has ever given.