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Within a year, federal funding through the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development had been obtained and the
Cordelia Martin Interim Health Center was opened in its
original location at 1636 W. Bancroft Street.
During those early days
the clinic was only open a few days a week based upon the
availability of the volunteers who staffed the operation.
“Federal funding enabled
the Center to serve the uninsured, the under-served and the
outliers from standard medical services,” says Miller noting
that such funding also required the clinic to serve anyone –
those with insurance for example.
Due to Martin’s ability to
bring people together to work for a common cause, the Center
was soon staffed by such luminaries as Margaret Howell,
community heath coordinator; Dr. John Coleman; Dr. Robert
Walden and Talmadge Foster, center administration.
Federal funding to
continue the work of that staff, the board and volunteers
was never a given. Model Cities funds ended in 1974 and
obtaining continuing federal funds was an ongoing challenge.
In 1975, Daisy Smith, RN,
who had been with the Center from the beginning and for whom
one of the NHA facilities is now named, brought together 14
women to organize themselves as the Cordelia Martin Health
Center Auxiliary in order to augment the organization and to
help fulfill a range of needs – chief among those needs was
raising funds.
The Auxiliary organized
bake sales, rummage sales and charity bazaars along with
sponsoring the cleaning of inside facilities and yard work.
The woman of the Auxiliary provided valuable supplemental
funds for the Center over the next decade and a half,
nevertheless, financially, NHA was never out of the woods.
By 1978, the Center had 25
people on staff, had increased patient visits to 600 per
month and had added an Adolescent Health Care Program
through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
“There were bumps and
lumps along the way,” says Flournoy of those struggles
during the first two decades. Many bumps and lumps: funding
issues, internal board strife and a federal government
constantly questioning whether the funds were being well
spent. By 1992, says Flournoy, NHA was on the verge of
collapse.
And then along came
Miller.
Doni Miller, a native of
Louisville Mississippi, moved with her family first to
Philadelphia, PA and then to Detroit as a youngster. She had
earned her undergraduate degree from the University of
Detroit (now University of Detroit-Mercy) then moved to
Toledo where she earned a law degree from the University of
Toledo.
She started her career at
United Way of Greater Toledo as assistant director of
allocations in 1982 and two year later became special
assistant to the CEO and director of program
development/legal assistant at the Toledo Mental Health
Center. In 1990 she became assistant hospital administrator
of the Medical College Hospitals before leaving for NHA.
She was asked to take the
job, she says, because the board “wanted someone of color
who would work inside of the community.” The advice she
received as she was trying to reach a decision about
accepting the offer was not particularly encouraging. One
community activist, and budding politician, Jack Ford,
advised her that the problems at NHA were too entrenched to
overcome.
She did not follow that
advice and she walked into a hornet’s nest of trouble –
massive debt and the looming possibility that those federal
funds were about to be pulled because of the financial mess.
She dealt with the
finances and she also dealt with the bread and butter issues
that had been keeping people away. She had the Center
painted and the parking lot fenced, says Flournoy, telling
staff that the facility had to at least look attractive for
people to want to come in.
“What saved Cordelia
Martin was when Doni Miller came along,” says Flournoy.
Within two years, the
financial status of the Center had improved enough to
receive a positive review from the U.S. Public Health
Service.
“When we were on our feet
and feeling pretty comfortable, they came to us about a
clinic on the east side to merge with – the Toledo East
Health Clinic, now the Access Center on Front and Main,”
recalls Miller. Shortly thereafter, NHA would take over the
South Side Community Health Clinic and the Mayores Senior
Center. By 2002, NHA would have nine clinics under its
wings, a 120-member staff and an $8 million budget.
“We added a number of
clinics over the years,” says Miller. “We now manage 16
facilities such as a clinic for the homeless [Mildred
Bayer], a women’s health clinic [Huron Street] and thee
dental clinics. We’ve developed a number of specialty
services over the past 20 years.”
And now comes Nexus Health
Care – the effort to streamline and consolidate a number of
those services. The building is located between Monroe and
Jefferson and between 13th and 14th
streets. Staff will provide adult medical care, a women’s
health care clinic, pediatrics, dental services, a pharmacy,
a care center for the homeless, an urgent care center, a
restaurant, meeting space and a branch of the Toledo Urban
Federal Credit Union.
The $11 million health
clinic came about as the result of a collaboration between a
number of government and non-government entities. The Lucas
County Land Bank, administered by the Lucas County
Treasurer’s Office, acquired the land and spent $45,000 to
clean up the site.
The federal government
provided a grant of $5 million through the Department of
Health and Human Services for construction costs and the
Local Initiatives Support Corp (LISC) financed the balance
of $6 million through tax credits.
NHA broke ground for Nexus
Health Care in April 2015 and is scheduled to open to the
public this September 2016. Miller once said that she
believes a person has to be strong and healthy in order to
successfully meet the challenges of life. Nexus will make it
much more convenient for so many more citizens of the Toledo
area to meet those challenges. |
