Codman Square health center to expand with new federal funding

By Cara Bayles, Town Correspondent

The Codman Square Health Center will build a 36,000 square-foot expansion to its existing building, thanks to a federal funding awarded to the organization Friday.

The $7.95 million going to Codman is part of a $727 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration that targets renovation projects at 143 community health centers in Massachusetts and across the country.

Tony Stankiewicz, chief development officer at Codman Square Health Center, says the organization applied for stimulus funding and was denied last year.

"We're closing in on 300 employees, we have over 100,000 patient visits per year, and we also house a charter highschool, Codman Academy, within our building, which is unique," says Stankiewicz. "So, with the exponential increase in the number of patient visits, as well as our charter school, and a significant number of non-clinical programs as well, we were just plumb out of space."

The grant covers more than half of the construction costs for a building that will offer space for clinical visits and other programming. The health center has already raised nearly $5 million privately, through foundations and individual donors. They estimate the project will cost $14.1 million.

The building will also be powered in part by its own wind turbines and solar panels, and will be the first LEED Gold Certified green building in Dorchester. Stankiewicz anticipates they'll break ground in 2011.

The center is known for this approach, and won recent acclaim for a program that allowed doctors to prescribe vegetables for patients struggling against obesity or diabetes.

"The majority of it is for clinical use. We need more space for our providers to see patients. We'll also have space for our non-clinical programs," says Stankiewicz. "A big part of who we are is taking a very holistic approach to healthcare. The hope is that not only through episodic visits, but also through our non-clinical programs, we help educate our patients. The real culprit here is poverty."