Marin City Health and Wellness Center
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Leadership Programs for Black Teens
As a community healthcare organization, Marin City Health & Wellness Center understands that to address the needs of teens in at-risk communities, we must expose them to multicultural experiences and role models who demonstrate diverse values of academic, social and personal effort.
MCHWC offers programs for Black teens:
- The Defenders for young men in middle and high school
- Girl Power for young women in middle and high school
- The summer Quality of Life Road Trip for the most vulnerable youth living in poverty and public housing to meet leaders in business, education and community across the U.S.
Preventative Behavioral Health
Most programs for Black teens who struggle academically focus on tutoring and mentoring. We see behavioral health at the heart of challenges students face at school. The Defenders and Girl Power uniquely leverage the mental health expertise of a public health clinic to focus on improved behaviors at home and in the classroom and, as a result, improved grades.
Social Determinants of Health
Most program participants face severe risks at home, toxic stress from repeated trauma and chronic poverty, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
Health and wealth are directly correlated, as are poverty and illness. When disadvantaged young people have access to knowledge, advice and role models, they see options for careers. Each youth begins to build employment and a stronger local economy, breaking historic cycles in low-income communities.
Reducing maternal health disparities through perinatal care
The US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized country in the world: more than 2 women die every day in this country from pregnancy-related causes; and our maternal mortality ratios have increased dramatically over the past 25 years. For Black women the maternal health disparities are severe: African American women or their babies are nearly 4 times more likely (than White or Latina moms) to die as a result of childbirth.
The Marin Family Birth Center opened in 2016 as the only place where a Medi-Cal mom in Marin could give birth outside of the hospital or her home. Longer appointments with a midwife (who cares for the same new mother through prenatal counseling, birth and post-natal care) lead to better health outcomes for mother and baby.
The birth center operates as part of a public health clinic (FQHC), which offers wraparound care including women's health, maternal care, pediatric, dental and behavioral health.
Recovery Services
MCHWC provides recovery services for those dealing with addiction to heroin, prescription pain medication or alcohol. Our substance abuse counseling and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program is available to the homeless and general population. We partner with other service providers and the criminal justice system in Marin and San Francisco counties to help adults in need.
We provide these services from three clinic sites in the Bay Area:
• Individual and group counseling
• Medical treatment for opioid use, heroin, prescriptions pain meds, or alcohol
• Suboxone/Vivitrol Medication-Assisted Recovery
• Resources and referrals to outpatient and in-patient treatment programs
Primary Health Care
Founded in 2006 to provide healthcare to residents of public housing, our mission is innovative health and wellness services for all, with the goal of African American health equity.
As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), we provide primary healthcare (medical, dental and behavioral health), maternal and perinatal care, medication assisted recovery treatment, chiropractic, acupuncture, health education, and chronic disease management for patients, regardless of income. Services include:
• State-of-the-art medical and dental care
• Behavioral and mental health programs
• Healthy lifestyle programs for all ages
• Natural birth center (Marin County’s first alternative birth facility)
• Youth leadership programs for Black teen boys (The Defenders) and teen girls (Girl Power)
We accept Medi-Cal (Medicaid), Medicare and private insurance, and our Certified Enrollment Counselor helps patients with eligibility. In 2016, we:
• Provided 13,816 medical, dental and behavioral health visits to 3,065 unique patients;
• Served all ages: 67% of patients are 25-64 years old, and patients range from infants to seniors;
• Reached multicultural patients: 44% Caucasian, 22% African American, 11% Latino, 5% Asian.
Dental Care for underserved communities
We are expanding dental health for low-income adults through primary oral health services, prevention and treatment from two clinic sites (Marin City and Bayview Hunters Point), and a new mobile dental van. In addition, we are working with school districts (Sausalito Marin City and San Francisco Unified) to , and to reinforce dental health education through referrals among primary care and wellness services (such as nutrition, well-child exams and annual visits); all are reinforced by texts to patients.
Where we work
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Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) 2011
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Marin City Health and Wellness Center
Board of directorsas of 08/01/2021
Raphael Durr
Patrick Lee
Patrick Lee, DDS
Shirley Thornton
Retired Superintendent, Principal and Professor
Alexis Wise
WISE Choices for Girls
Mohammed Ashraf
Marin Limousine and Car Service
Melvin Atkins
Retired Property Manager and Insurance Agent
Ricardo Moncrief
Founder, ISOJI Collaborative
William Ortiz-Cartagena
Commissioner, SF Office of Small Business
Jennifer Sotelo
Recreation and Park Dept of San Francisco
B. Sykes
Retired Practitioner in Mental and Physical Rehabilitation
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes