Our Story

Why a Community Health Center?

Community health centers provide primary, preventive and dental care, as well as mental health, substance use disorder and other community-based services to anyone in need regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay. In Massachusetts, 52 community health center organizations provide high quality health care to some one million state residents through more than 285 sites statewide.

In addition to providing comprehensive health services to underserved people, health centers are at the leading edge of addressing some of the most vexing problems of our health care system, including facilitating access to health insurance coverage for low-income residents and eliminating health disparities between racial and ethnic populations.

In order to address the complex health needs of the communities they serve, health centers work to screen, prevent and manage chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, HIV/AIDS, cancer and depression; reduce low birthweights in newborns; and offer a range of programs and services that promote overall health and wellness

Source: MLCH website

Why Hyde Park?

• • Hyde Park had the highest infant mortality rate of any Boston neighborhood from 2012 - 2021 (7.8 deaths per 1,000 live births). Our neighbors in Roslindale had the lowest infant mortality rate in the city (2.4 deaths per 1,000 live births)

  • The burden of mental health illness in our community is significant

    • the percentage of Hyde Park residents reporting anxiety, 23.1%, is over 9% greater than the city at large 

    • Hyde Park’s suicide rate per 100,000 people of 7%, is 9.6% higher than the city at large.

  • 13.2% of Hyde Park residents have a disability, over 5,000 people.

  • The rate of hospital encounters for asthma for Hyde Park residents is over 8% greater than for the city at large.

  • 9,000 people in Hyde Park live below the federal poverty level.

  • Hyde Park has a higher percentage of both renters ( 49%) and homeowners (30%) who are more Housing Cost Burdened than those in the city at large.

  • Hyde Park has a significantly diverse makeup: 45.7 % Black, 24.7% Latino, 21.9% White, 2.2% Asian, and 4.2% people of two or more races. 

    • This substantiates the need for culturally relevant, responsive, and accessible care.

  • The closure of nearby hospitals has expanded the medical desert in the community and created further urgency for a community health center.