Community Outreach

What Makes a Community Health Center Different?

Community Health Centers have evolved from their early days following President Johnson’s War on Poverty, designed to improve living conditions for low-income populations. The current model can be largely attributed to Dr. H. Jack Geiger and Dr. John Hatch, who believed that community plays a significant role in creating a healthy population, and that when a health center is owned, operated, and directed by people from the communities in which they serve, there is a positive impact on health and well-being. Since then, small integrated health centers have sprung up all over America, serving over 30 million patients.

Blue Ridge Health is one in a network of about 1,400 Community Health Centers in the United States that have earned the distinction of being a Federally Qualified Health Centers or FQHC. Click here to learn more.

All photos shared with written patient consent.

Community Outreach throughout the WNC Region

Blue Ridge Health collaborates with community partners to bring health education and care directly to the people we serve in Western North Carolina. Our outreach workers go into schools to teach children about handwashing, into churches to provide blood pressure screenings, attend community events to educate people about nutritional health and healthcare options, and much more. We are always working to break down barriers to quality healthcare – community education and mobile clinics are just two of the ways we do that.

With a goal of creating equitable health outcomes, we provide community education on:

  • Blood pressure
  • Blood sugar
  • Substance abuse
  • Nutritional health
  • HIV & Aids

Our mobile clinics can perform several types of health screening, including:

  • Blood pressure
  • Vision
  • COVID
  • HIV
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