Press Herald covers opening celebration of Portland Community Health Center at Riverton

The Portland Press Herald covered the June 20th opening celebration of the Portland Community Health Center at Riverton.

The center is part of the “CHANNELS” program, led and facilitated by University of New England, and made possible through a collaborative relationship with the Portland Community Health Center, City of Portland, Portland Housing Authority, and the Maine Center for Disease Control-Cumberland Public Health District.

The new clinic is funded through a three-year, $1.3 million federal grant UNE received under the Affordable Care Act. The grant also covers a number of educational and training initiatives at the university. Funding the clinic accounts for about 25 percent of the total grant, said Jen Morton, interim director of the nursing department at UNE.

The center’s opening makes health care more accessible for residents of Riverton Park – a neighborhood of 141 apartments – and will better prepare future health professionals who deliver care to the City of Portland’s underserved populations, including immigrants and refugees.

UNE nursing students will assist a nurse-practitioner, medical assistant, social workers and outreach workers staffing the clinic. Read the Press Herald story.