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Article: Connolly Honored for Community Health Center Outreach
Sep 7 2011FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:
Connolly honored for community health center outreach
By Jennifer Buske
The National Association of Community Health Centers honored Rep. Gerry Connolly on Tuesday for his support of community health facilities across the state.
Connolly (D-Va.) received the award at the Greater Prince William Community Health Center, where he was surrounded by about 40 representatives from various nonprofits and health and wellness organizations.
“Gerry has been a real advocate for working families here in Prince William,” said Frank Principi, the health center’s executive director and a Prince William supervisor. “We are privileged to recognize his efforts on behalf of the many families and individuals who now have access to affordable, quality health care in their own community.”
Three years ago, the Prince William health center was strapped for cash and on the brink of closing its doors, officials with the center said. In 2009, Connolly helped secure a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that allowed the facility to stay afloat and eventually expand services to both the insured and uninsured in the community.
“The Greater Prince William Community Health Center and 100 other community health centers across the commonwealth fill an important void in health care for tens of thousands of hard-working Virginia families by providing lower-cost access to quality medical services,” Connolly said.
The Prince William health center was founded in 2004 and provides laboratory, family and internal medicine services, physical and well-woman exams, pharmacy assistance, prenatal, dental and behavioral health care.
The center, which nominated Connolly for the national award, was started when nearby hospital emergency rooms were overflowing and affordable health-care options in Prince William, Manassas and Manassas Park were scarce, officials with the center said. It is now the community’s only federally qualified health center.
The National Association of Community Health Centers was organized in 1971 to work with the more than 7,000 community facilities across the nation, according to the company’s Web site.
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Release:
Connolly Receives Award for Supporting Community Health Centers
WOODBRIDGE –Congressman Gerry Connolly received a national award Tuesday for his strong support for community health centers in Virginia and across the nation at a ceremony in Woodbridge.
Connolly received the Advocacy Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers at a luncheon meeting of the Greater Prince William Community Health Center's Board of Directors and the Prince William Chamber of Commerce's councils on nonprofits, health and wellness.
The Prince William center’s board nominated Connolly for the national award to recognized his successful efforts in 2009 to help the Woodbridge-based health center secure a $1.1 million grant to keep the facility from closing permanently. The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services provided the needed infusion of funds to keep the health center's doors open.
The Prince William facility provides health care on a sliding payment scale to thousands of under-served residents of the Prince William area.
"The Greater Prince William Community Health Center and 100 other community health centers across the Commonwealth fill an important void in health care for tens of thousands of hard-working Virginia families by providing lower-cost access to quality medical services," Congressman Connolly said.
“I’m honored to receive this national award from the NACHC, but my greater reward is knowing that my efforts have helped insure that thousands of Prince William residents are able to receive the medical services they need at a cost they can afford.
The Greater Prince William Community Health Center nominated Connolly for the award.