From Band-Aids to Building Blocks: Greater Bergen Community Action Tackles the Roots of Health
Here at Greater Bergen Community Action, we've spent decades serving our community, offering a hand up to those struggling with poverty,...
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Overview
Despite Bergen County, NJ, being known for its affluence, the challenges laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic have illuminated healthcare disparities right here in our own community.
As we emerge from this global crisis, Greater Bergen Community Action is actively addressing these disparities through the Unity Health Partnership—a collaborative initiative focused on eliminating structural barriers to quality healthcare in Bergen County. We are committed to creating a model of accessible, quality, and comprehensive care for all members of our community.
Unity Health Partnership will provide primary, urgent, preventative, and chronic care to uninsured low-income residents of Bergen County. Additionally, it aims to address persistent food insecurity, offer comprehensive public health programming, fulfill the need for mental health services, provide pharmacy services, and offer wraparound services for improved overall health outcomes.
Your support can help us realize this vision.
Your generous donation will give the gift of health access to those who need it most, making a lasting impact on our community's well-being. Together, we can build a healthier, more equitable future for Bergen County.
Contribute to Unity Health to create positive change in the lives of our neighbors.
Give the Gift of Health Access
Overview
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that even in a healthcare-rich environment like Bergen County, there are structural barriers to quality care for many in our community. As importantly, the Pandemic revealed the inter-relatedness of overall health in preventing serious illness. As we emerge from the global pandemic, Greater Bergen Community Action is building a consortium of health providers to address the Social Determinants of Health in southern Bergen County, one of the most challenged areas of our community.
The Unity Health Partnership will be a model of accessible, quality, and comprehensive care for the low-income, underserved, and uninsured to receive the kind of care everyone deserves.
The Healthy People 2030 Framework identifies the following factors as essential in a person’s overall health:
• Economic Stability: Help people earn steady incomes that allow them to meet their health needs.
• Education Access and Quality: Increase educational opportunities and help children and adolescents do well in school.
• Health Care Access and Quality: Increase access to comprehensive, high-quality health care services.
• Neighborhood and Built Environment: Create neighborhoods and environments that promote health and safety.
• Social and Community Context: Increase social and community support.
At Unity Health, there will be no wrong door. Everyone entering through any partner will be able to access the comprehensive services of the other members. Each individual will be able to access what they need to improve the quality of their lives, just by stepping onto the campus.
The Center
Donate to Unity Health
The Partners
Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. is a progressive not-for-profit organization working throughout New Jersey to build more sustainable families, community institutions, and neighborhoods. It does this through strategic investments in community and household finance, education, healthcare, housing, workforce development, energy, and neighborhood revitalization.
Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative (BVMI) provides free primary, urgent, preventive, and chronic care to low-income, working, Bergen County adults who are uninsured. BVMI's volunteer clinicians provide a medical home to more than 1,000 hardworking patients.
Community Food Bank of New Jersey has been delivering food, help, and hope across the state for 45 years. In the Health & Wellness Center complex, the Community Food Bank of New Jersey will operate a “supermarket” model Client-Choice pantry allowing those in need to shop and choose the food they want for their families.
The Garfield Health Department promotes a safe and healthy community through collaborative partnerships committed to improving the health and wellness of all residents. The Department’s evolving and comprehensive public health services integrated at the Health & Wellness Center would enable the Department to reach its full potential in the new, state-of-the-art health and wellness complex.
Mid Bergen Regional Health Commission was founded in 1978 as a governmental entity to provide an array of Public Health services to communities in Bergen County. Currently serving 15 communities, the Commission will be an important partner in the Health & Wellness Center.
CBH Care has provided community-based mental and behavioral health services in Northern New Jersey since 1969. At the center, CBH Care will provide a full spectrum of behavioral health services, family support services, and mental health services to individuals, families, and the community with respect and dignity.
Generations for Garfield is the public-private partnership focused on developing Garfield into a Age Friendly community, for residents who want to age in place. They accomplish this work by addressing barriers in transportation, communication, and social inclusion.
Greater Bergen Community Action is prepared to construct a Health & Wellness Center at 529 Midland Avenue in Garfield, NJ, a designated Medically Underserved Area (MUA) that would benefit from a center that will:
• provide primary, urgent, preventative, and chronic care to the
uninsured low-income residents of Bergen County
• close the gap in persistent food insecurity
• provide comprehensive public health programming
• fill the needs of mental health services among the residents of
Southern Bergen County
• provide pharmacy services
• offer other wraparound services to help the region’s residents
attain better overall health outcomes
The Center
ACCESSIBILITY
The campus will be easily accessible to local residents as well as to the region via public transportation with both a train station and bus stop being a short walkable distance away.
The City of Garfield has pledged to build a walkway from the train station and across the park, directly to the campus
The health and wellness center will be accessible from both Midland
Avenue and New Schley Street with plentiful parking throughout the
campus.
Schematics
· Consultation Rooms
· Medical Labs
· Conference Rooms
· Waiting areas
· and more!
The health & wellness center will have ample space to hold:
· Client Choice Pantry
· Demonstration Kitchen
· In-house Pharmacy
· Examination Rooms
· Community Spaces
· Group Counseling
Schematics
FISCAL PARTNERS
TO GET INVOLVED CONTACT
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Fiscal Partners
Conact Us
PRESS
Contribute to Unity Health to create positive change in the lives of our neighbors.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Information
Greater Bergen Community Action, Inc. - GBCA is a 501(c) (3), not-for-profit Community Action Agency. Established in 1967, Greater Bergen is part of a nationwide network of poverty-fighting enterprises which were established as part of the nation’s effort to address the intractable and persistent problem of poverty in America.
Contact Us
GBCA Headquarters
392 Main Street
Hackensack, NJ 07601
201-968-0200
Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 22-1818014
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