THE PROBLEM AND COMMUNITY-DRIVEN SOLUTION
In the fall of 2020, through conversations with hundreds of community members, we learned that too many people in the Charleston area are denied the ability to access lifesaving, primary healthcare. These stories moved us first to outrage, and then to action.
Here is one of those stories.
OUR CAMPAIGN
In March 2021, our healthcare committee sent a formal proposal to MUSC’s CEOs and president asking them to fund two mobile health clinics for our local federally-qualified healthcare center, Fetter Healthcare Network. (Here’s the proposal if you’d like to read it.)
On March 20, 2021, 2,402 community members gathered virtually and in person for our annual Nehemiah Action Assembly, where we asked MUSC Board of Trustees member Dr. Melvin Brown to commit his support for our proposal. He agreed. MUSC’s CEO and president declined our invitation to attend the event.
Hundreds of these community members then reached out to MUSC’s CEO and president via email and asked them to meet with CAJM. These emails inspired MUSC to meet with our healthcare committee. We met three times between April 2021 and July 2021, gaining a commitment from MUSC to fund the mobile health units in June 2021. Here’s a full timeline of our contact with MUSC.
However, in our meeting in July 2021, MUSC CEOs Dr. David Zaas and Dr. Patrick Cawley stated that they had not committed to funding the units, contradicting what they had said in our previous meeting.
But, thanks to CAJM’s persistence, even when efforts with MUSC stalled, Roper St. Francis stepped up to fund a unit — state Reps. Wendell Gilliard and Leon Stavrinakis helped ensure funds were designated in MUSC’s state budget in 2023 to add a mobile unit at Fetter.
As of 2024, Fetter has two mobile units on the way and scheduled to hit the road within the next two years. This would not have been made possible without the persistence of CAJM’s Healthcare Committee members who held press conferences, met with healthcare officials, and leveraged local media in order to acquire funding that would expand medical access.