FAMILY Inc. has been awarded a $25,000 grant by First Interstate Bank.
“The funding will assist in addressing poverty in our community by ensuring access to basic needs through FAMILY’s Mobile Wellness Unit,” said FAMILY Executive Director Kimberly Kolakowski. “Access to healthcare can be a challenge for individuals facing poverty. In order for an individual to have the capacity to face the challenges in their life that contributed to living in poverty, an individual needs to be physically and mentally well. FAMILY’s Mobile Wellness Unit brings preventive health screenings to underserved individuals where they are and makes finding care more accessible.”
The grant will help FAMILY take its mobile wellness unit to four additional counties, she said. The organization expects a 10% increase in services for children and adolescents from rural areas and those who identify as Hispanic/Latino. FAMILY also anticipates making “at least” 100 referrals to additional resources, services and supports because of initial contacts through the mobile unit.
People are also reading…
FAMILY’s Mobile Wellness Unit, housed in a converted motor home, made its debut in late February 2021, during the organization’s Drive-Thru Dr. Seuss Literacy Celebration at the Charles E. Lakin Human Services Campus. Since the unit is equipped with a dental chair, FAMILY can use it to conduct oral health screenings and provide fluoride treatments, as well as performing hearing and vision screenings, lead tests, developmental assessments and nutrition assessments.
The group’s staff felt it needed a mobile unit to continue to operate its I-Smile program during the pandemic.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, dental services were canceled everywhere, and then dental clinics slowly began to open,” Kolakowski said when FAMILY launched its mobile unit. “We do close to 3,000 no-cost oral cleanings in schools every year.”
With the mobile unit, dental hygienists did not have to enter schools to conduct the screenings and cleanings.
Fortunately, FAMILY was able to draw on multiple sources to fund the unit, including the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children program, Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation, State Farm Neighborhood Assist program and the Southwest Iowa COVID-19 Response Fund.
First Interstate also chose to donate items from its coat/winter wear drive to FAMILY and delivered those on Dec. 22
.