The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the Soulsville Foundation and Soulsville community, and the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation announced Tuesday they are partnering to bring convenient and affordable primary health care to the historic Soulsville neighborhood.
Representatives from the organizations, local media, and invited guests gathered in Studio A inside the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Soulsville to announce the launch of the UTHSC Health Hub: Soulsville, which will open in the fall at 870 E. McLemore Ave.
“You’ve heard the phrase, ‘it takes a village,’ ” UT Health Science Center’s Chancellor Peter Buckley, MD, told the enthusiastic crowd. “It does take a village. This is an incredibly worthwhile project. It builds on what is already the foundation of this community and it gives us the opportunity to make a difference. We feel very privileged to be part of this.”
A neighborhood approach to health care, the UTHSC Health Hub: Soulsville will offer primary care for adults and children, health coaching, school nursing serving three community schools, youth intervention specialists for student behavioral health needs, and mental health counseling (in the program’s second year). The care will be targeted to the residents of Soulsville, and personnel for the hub will be from the Soulsville community or deeply rooted in the community.
“Soulsville is excited to be involved in this project,” said Soulsville Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Pat Mitchell Worley. One of the main reasons for that, she explained, stems from the vision organizers from UT Health Science Center have for the health hub. “They spoke about health not as disease. They spoke about health like the World Health Organization talks about the state of health as complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and that’s what we all deserve.”
Read more at our UTHSC news site.