National Health Center Week – August 7th-13th, 2016

Follow and join the conversation with #NHCW16, #CHCsInnovate and #AGACCESS2020.

In the United States there are 44 million uninsured people. There are another 56 million who, although they may have health insurance, live in areas without doctors and basic health services. Begun over 50 years ago as a pilot project during President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, health centers continue to provide services to those in need. In order to honor and raise awareness about the mission and accomplishments of America’s Health Centers, we celebrate National Health Center Week (NHCW) each August. This year the national campaign runs August 7-13th and the theme is “Celebrating America’s Health Centers: Innovators in Community Health.”

National Health Center Week
For more than 30 years the National Association of Community Health Centers (@NACHC) has sponsored National Health Center Week. There are two main goals of NHCW: to build support for health center programs and to increase awareness of Community, Migrant, Homeless, and Public Housing Centers. Over the years health Centers have proven their success and delivery of accessible, cost effective, high quality care across the nation and National Health Center Week provides the perfect platform to celebrate this. NHCW also gives America’s Health Centers the opportunity to rally public support by telling their stories and showing how their unique method offers solutions to the nation’s health crisis.

About National Association of Community Health Centers
The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) was founded in 1971 and set out to become the national health care advocacy organization for America’s medically underserved and uninsured and the community health centers that serve as their health care home. NACHC continually conducts research about the work of health centers and the overall health of the nation’s communities. They offer professional development, training, and technical assistance to support health center operations. In order to build stronger and healthier communities NACHC works to develop partnerships with public and private sectors.

This video gives a great snapshot of the past, present, and future of America’s Health Centers.

2016 National Health Center Week Theme
The theme for this year’s National Health Center Week is “Celebrating America’s Health Centers: Innovators in Community Health.” The theme helps provide health centers with a common message and framework to showcase all that they do for their communities. This year, in addition to the overarching theme, there are also focused theme days that will give health centers more opportunities to highlight the innovative services and programs they provide. The hope is that by coordinating as many local efforts as possible focused on each area on the same day, centers can maximize the impact of their message nationally. See a list of the suggested theme days below:

• Sunday 8/7: Health Center Workforce
• Monday 8/8: Health Screenings **Is your Health Center partnering with the American Cancer Society on Health Screening Programming in the community? Reach out to your ACS contacts to coordinate opportunities to showcase your great work and positive health outcomes in the community.
• Tuesday 8/9: Public Housing Health Center Day
• Wednesday 8/10: Healthcare for the Homeless Day
• Thursday 8/11: Farmworker Health Day
  Show your support for the Agricultural Worker Access 2020 Campaign on Social Media with the hashtag #AGACCESS2020. Tweet This
• Friday 8/12: Protecting Public Health
• Saturday 8/13: Health Center Enabling Services

Get Involved
To celebrate National Health Center Week 2016 at your organization, explore the Tools for Hosts tab on the NHCW website. There you will find ideas, materials, downloads, and activity ideas to help engage the public and easily promote all of the good health centers do for their communities. Also, if you already have an event planned be sure to submit it to the site so that your community members will be able to access the information about it and be sure to attend.