The North Carolina Community Health Center Association extends its deepest gratitude to the Dogwood Health Trust for its generous donation to support the urgent funding needs of Community Health Centers (CHCs) impacted by Hurricane Helene.
CHCs provide comprehensive, affordable care to underserved communities, including rural residents who were among those most heavily affected by the storm. Despite suffering both organizational and personal losses, the Health Center workforce has remained a lifeline for thousands of impacted individuals in the disaster area, providing essential medical care with mobile units in hard-hit communities, performing door-to-door well checks, and reopening health center sites and pharmacies even while staff dealt with unimaginable losses.
Thanks to Dogwood Health Trust’s critical emergency relief funding, seven Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) within the foundation’s operating area are receiving relief funding to help support operations, pay staff, and provide vital care to impacted residents in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
“Hurricane Helene has affected the people and communities of Western North Carolina in unimaginable ways,” said Dr. Susan Mims, CEO of Dogwood Health Trust. “Our response includes this funding for short-term relief, and we will be here for long-term recovery and rebuilding as well. We are working with our funded partners to get resources to all our neighbors in need throughout the region.”
NCCHCA and the health center recipients are deeply grateful for Dogwood Health Trust’s unwavering commitment to health equity and its continued partnership as we work together to help Western North Carolina recover.
Despite this generous donation and others, the vast scale of devastation left by Helene and prolonged service interruptions mean that additional financial support will be needed to maintain operations in the near term and to support the long-term full recovery for our Western North Carolina Health Centers and communities.
CHC Disaster Relief Fund: To support ongoing recovery, NCCHCA has launched a group CHC Disaster Relief Fund to provide financial assistance to health 
centers and their staff as they rebuild. Donations to the NCCHCA Disaster Relief Fund will reach multiple impacted health centers with needed resources as they continue providing affordable medical and mental health care, medications, and hope to impacted communities.
See more about how CHCs stepped into the breach to serve their communities after Helene in this PDF: https://www.ncchca.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Community-Health-Centers-on-the-Frontlines-of-Helene-10.23.24.pdf.
