Affinity Health Center will hold a week long celebration of community health to mark National Health Center Week 2019 from August 4th-10th. We invite you to two special events during the week.

Our Cultivating Roots in the Community event at Affinity Health Center on Tuesday August 6, 2019, from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm.  Activities throughout the day will encourage healthy behaviors, including: yoga, Zumba, meditation mini classes; one-on-one with a dietician and samples of healthy snacks; and tours of Affinity Health Center. A Sports Physical Clinic will be held from 4:00 to 6:30. Sports physicals will be $10 during this walk-in clinic.

Rooted in the Community Cookout on Saturday August 10, 2019 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. This outdoor event will be held near Tite Cuts barbershop  at 117 Allen St. in Rock Hill. Free food, discount haircuts, learn about resources in the community.

For more details on these and other activities check out our calendar:

• Monday, August 5 at 9:00 am: Breakfast for clients of Pathways Community Center
• Monday, August 5 at 10:00 am: Press Conference at Rock Hill City Hall Rotunda
• Monday, August 5 at noon: Anita Case interviewed on WRHI Straight Talk
• Tuesday, August 6 from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm: Cultivating Healthy Roots in the Community at Affinity Health Center
• Thursday, August 8 at 6:30 pm: Growing Roots, Day of Service – Affinity staff will prepare and serve the evening meal at Bethel UMC Men’s Shelter
• Saturday, August 10 from 10:00am to 2:00 pm: Rooted in the Community Cookout near Tite Cuts Barbershop (117 Allen St., Rock Hill)

About National Health Center Week
National Health Center Week (NHCW) is a national campaign to increase awareness of the ways health centers are providing affordable health care in communities. A host of NHCW events that celebrate the ways that health centers are “Rooted in Communities” are scheduled across the country, including health fairs, visits by Members of Congress and state officials to local health centers, press conferences, back-to-school drives, community breakfasts, patient appreciation events, free health screenings and much more.

Affinity Health Center is part of a nationwide network of locally-run health centers that serve more than 28 million people nationwide. They are on the front lines of national public health challenges – whether caring for veterans, providing opioid treatment, or responding to natural disasters.

Highlights of health center accomplishments include:

• Reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and unnecessary visits to the emergency room;
• Treating patients for a fraction of the average cost of one emergency room visit;
• Serving more than one in six Medicaid beneficiaries for less than two percent of the national Medicaid budget;
• Lowering the cost of children’s primary care by approximately 35 percent;
• Treating 65,000 patients with Medication Assisted Therapy for opioid use disorder in 2017; and,
• Serving over 355,000 veterans throughout the country.

This year’s NHCW 2019 will highlight how health centers are at the forefront of a nationwide shift in addressing environmental and social factors as an integral part of primary care, reaching beyond the walls of conventional medicine to address the factors that may cause sickness, such as lack of nutrition, mental illness, homelessness and substance use disorders. Community Health Centers’ success in managing chronic disease in medically vulnerable communities has helped reduce health care costs for American taxpayers. Each day of NHCW 2019 is dedicated to a particular focus area. To learn more and view a listing of events please visit: www.healthcenterweek.org. To see a calendar of Affinity Health Center’s events for NHCW visit our website at http://affinityhealthcenter.org/calendar/2019-08/.