Ensuring Black Families Thrive-Village of Healing

Our mission statement at The Village of Healing Center is to deliver quality health care services that meet the social and cultural needs of patients, improving health outcomes and quality of care that eliminates racial and ethnic health disparities.

We are developing a health care clinic to be implemented in the 2021 fiscal year.  This clinic will address part of ongoing efforts to improve quality and access to care for black women in a city that a recent study has found to be the worst metropolitan area for black women in many facets including health.

The population that will benefit most is located on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, which has been shown to have the worst racial disparities in health care. By starting a practice in this area, it offers an opportunity to care for women in zip codes with an underserved, disparate population affected with limited access to care and adverse perinatal outcomes including high infant mortality rates, as well as those women interested in midwifery care. The practice will draw on the suburban populations of Cuyahoga County as well.  There is a need in Cuyahoga County women’s health market for culturally competent based midwifery care. Cuyahoga County has a large number of zip codes that show large racial disparities in diseases, morbidity, and mortality rates.

• In Cuyahoga County last year…
  • Black babies were 6x more likely to die than white babies.
  • Despite educational and socioeconomic status. 
• Black women with a bachelor’s degree or higher, are more likely to have a baby die before the age of one-year-old, than a white woman who has not completed a high school diploma.   
• Black women are 3-4x more likely to die from complications from pregnancy and childbirth. 
  • That number doubles when black women have at least a Bachelor’s degree and are over the age of 30. 

• Black mothers are more likely than white mothers to experience perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. 
• At more than double the rate of the general population, Black mothers are more likely to suffer from postpartum depression and less likely to initiate or continue treatment for postpartum depression.  

Mounting evidence suggests when physicians and patients share the same race or ethnicity, this improves the time spent together, medication adherence, consent to preventative services and shared-decision making, wait times for treatment, and patient perceptions of decisions. Implicit bias from providers is decreased.  All reports tell us that black patients have better outcomes and patient satisfaction when cared for by Black providers. We offer all members of the community, healthcare that looks like them. We work to ensure health that leads to from surviving to thriving.

The estimated start-up expenses will be $426,060. This sum includes the planning, marketing, purchase of medical equipment, medical supplies, office furniture equipment, office supplies, EMR start-up, building renovation, and rent. Marketing will be the most important expense during the first six months before the day of operations.

We invite you to join in the work of ensuring Black families are confident in their care, feel heard in their treatment, and feel whole in their daily living.  Most importantly, your contribution will aid us in ensuring Black families are done just surviving, but they know what it feels like to thrive. 

Thank you so much.