The new Harrison Park Academy health clinic will be the first to open inside a Grand Rapids Public School district elementary school. GRPS Director of Health Services Kim Baron explains.
“We have three other health centers: one at Union High School, one at Ottawa Hills High School, and one at Innovation Central High School, and our partner for those three sites is Cherry Health.”
With Cherry Health at capacity for its school-based programming, GRPS partnered with Grand Rapids-based Catherine’s Health Center, a non-profit federally qualified health center. Sara Brooks is the Operations Director at Catherine’s.
“It’s such an awesome way to meet the needs of our community and really get on the forefront of prevention by being able to provide services within schools.”
Students and community members ages 3 to 21 can utilize a variety of services including child wellness, immunizations, sports physicals, and behavioral health care. Baron says the community clinics feedback has been tremendous.
“Students can come down for their appointment and maybe miss just one class period as opposed to if they have to go offsite to a physician’s office, they may miss half a day or an entire day.”
A $180,000 annual grant fund awarded to GRPS by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ Child and Adolescent Health Center program will fund the new clinic. It opens in 2025.
