Campbell welcomes new health center near schools
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CAMPBELL -- The grand opening of the Campbell Health and Community Development Center took place Thursday morning at the center's new location near Campbell City Schools. Several organizations partnered with the district to construct the new center, and their representatives were invited to the event.
The new center offers a variety of services ranging from educational, medical and recreational, including both vision and dental clinics. These are just the tip of the iceberg, according to Campell Superintendent Matthew Bowen.
"In addition to the dental and vision [clinics], we also have a farm depot where we have hydroponic growth stations," Bowen said. "We also have an indoor activity and wellness center, indoor field turf, golf simulators [and] duck-pin bowling to make sure that students and families have a safe place to come and enjoy."
As for why multiple services are under one roof, Bowen explained that this is meant to make the center more efficient when servicing the community and its needs.
"We create an ecosystem of services," Bowen said. "That way our partners benefit from each other's foot traffic, and at the same time they're able to collaborate with each other to make sure that families and students have all of their needs met, and that we could help prepare students to go on to really great futures,"
According to John Carey, director of the Governor's Office of Appalachia, school-based health centers like this have become a priority for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's administration, and have been funded via the Appalachian Community Grant Program. It's hoped that these kinds of health centers can be a blueprint for others nationwide.
"When Gov. DeWine had the idea to have $500 million for Appalachia, one of the great things that he thought about was school-based health centers, and a large portion of that $500 million has been for school-based health centers ... this project is our biggest school-based health center," Carey said.
"All the lives that's going to change, the community impact, the school impact, it's really a model for the nation. I don't think I'm exaggerating about what a school-based health center can be."
Aside from the governor's office, several other organizations partnered with Campbell schools to make the center a reality. They include the Northeast Ohio Impact Academy, which provides college-level education to the center's students.
"We also have the Northeast Ohio Impact Academy where many of our students earn up to an associate's degree prior to graduation," Bowen said. "Many of our students by the end of their senior year have 55 hours of college credit accomplished, and we're really proud of our students for all of their hard work and how they embrace it."
Other partners include Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries, which will maintain a Goodwill in the health center. According to HaSheen Wilson, board president of Goodwill, the store helps the organization achieve its overall goal.
"People just know us for our stores, but really what our stores do is actually generate revenue to support our mission," Wilson said. "Our mission is projects like this and saying, 'How can we actually help?'"
The Campbell Health and Community Development Center is fully open to the public. The center's educational program is free for students, and funded through College Credit Plus. Patients at either of the center's clinics will need to pay for their services.