Spotlight On

Mission:
The mission of Mary's Center is to build better futures through health care, education, and social services that embrace our culturally diverse community.

Background:
Mary's Center was incorporated in 1988 with joint funding from the DC Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs and the DC Commission of Public Health. Although its original target was Ward One, Mary's Center now draws families from all over the city, as well as some from suburban Maryland and Virginia.

The most needy citizens of the District -- about 60,000 people -- have no health insurance and limited access to primary care doctors and clinics. They are often driven to a disproportionate use of hospital emergency rooms and do not seek much, if any preventive care. The key to changing this picture of inaccessible, ineffective, and expensive care is to ensure access to a primary health care home, regardless of ability to pay. Mary's Center provides such a home for its patients, which is in turn part of an integrated network of care for more serious medical problems and behavioral care needs.

The families who come to Mary's Center easily could have fallen through the cracks in the District's health care continuum. Its patients are members of hardworking households with low incomes and frequently no health insurance. Many are immigrants from Central and South America for whom English is not the first language.

Current Programs:
Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care is a family health and social services center dedicated to increasing access to comprehensive bilingual care to low-income, uninsured residents of Washington, DC. Between 2001 and 2002, the number of patients seeking care at Mary's Center rose 38%.

Mary's Center offers access to 24-hour primary care for families, midwifery-based well woman health care and prenatal care, family planning, HIV testing and counseling, home visitation, health education and outreach, dental exams, Women Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program, public health insurance enrollment, extensive social services, and family literacy classes.

Funding Needs:
General operating support is crucial to Mary's Center as it provides the funds necessary to serve low-income families in fulfillment of its mission. It also enables Mary's Center to participate in community outreach activities and provides supplementary resources for providing health care to those who cannot afford to pay. In addition, general operating support grants play a pivotal role in allowing Mary's Center to pay for the daily administration and operation of our organization.

The "Spotlight On" highlights the activities of a different 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving the Metropolitan Washington, DC community. The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight On" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the region's nonprofit sector.

If you'd like to see your NPO in the "Spotlight," e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to dclibrary@foundationcenter.org, with "Spotlight Submission" in the subject line.