Brevard Health Alliance breaks ground on Brevard Public School on-site clinic

The Brevard Health Alliance has joined forces with the Brevard Public Schools to offer the first on-site community health clinic to Endeavour Elementary students in Cocoa, Fla.

On Thursday, January 12, representatives from Brevard Health Alliance, Brevard Public Schools, and Endeavour Elementary broke ground on a new school-based health clinic. It will be the first clinic of its kind in Brevard County.
“We are excited to bring vital access to health care to the students of Endeavour,” said BHA CEO Austin Helton. “One of BHA’s core values is accessibility – ensuring the reduction of access barriers is this project's primary goal.”

The health center will be operated on school grounds in an 800-plus-square-foot portable and will feature three exam rooms and a lab.
BHA is already a part of the Community Partnership School Model with Endeavour Elementary, which allowed for students to be transported by the school to their Barton Blvd. clinic for medical and dental services on a weekly basis. Currently, BHA has a temporary clinic space in the school while the portable clinic is under construction. The expansion of this partnership has been made possible by the Health Center Program Service Expansion: School-Based Services Site funding.
Endeavour Elementary serves approximately 650 students and counting. Due to the needs of these children and their families, every student is served a free breakfast and lunch; of those, approximately 400 are sent home with a meal pack from the Children’s Hunger Project to ensure each child has food over the weekend.

School-based health care is a powerful tool for achieving health equity among children and adolescents who unjustly experience disparities in outcomes simply because of their race, ethnicity, or family income. It’s also an idea gaining currency across the country to place critically needed services like medical, behavioral, dental, and vision care directly in schools, so all young people, no matter their zip code, have equal opportunity to learn and grow.
About Brevard Health Alliance, Inc. 

Brevard Health Alliance (BHA) is a Federally Qualified Health Center providing adult and pediatric primary and dental care, behavioral health, OB/GYN, specialty care, enabling services, pediatric extended-hours walk-in care, and pharmacy services to all Brevard communities