Foundation’s $1M grant aims to bridge health care gap in North Texas communities

The North Texas Area Community Health Center (NTACHC) has officially named a building after The Morris Foundation, symbolizing the foundation’s financial support and its commitment to medically underserved communities.

Officials from the foundation and NTACHC gathered at the Northside Community Health Center on Wednesday morning to unveil the building’s new sign that reads “The Morris Foundation Building” in gold letters.

The Morris Foundation awarded the Northside Community Health Center a $1 million grant that will be paid out over subsequent years to the health center to support its $15.3 million capital campaign and to have a building dedicated to the foundation.

The building that’s now named after the foundation first opened in 2018 after U.S. Rep. Kay Granger led the capital campaign effort to build a new 34,000-square-foot Northside Community Health Center.

Aside from supporting its capital campaign, the foundation also sought out to support the center’s mission of providing accessible health care to vulnerable people living in Northside Fort Worth and throughout North Texas.

“We have a big focus on wellness for those who are underserved, disadvantaged or vulnerable. Those who end up going to emergency rooms or urgent care facilities as a last measure because the resources just aren’t there for them,” said Todd Liles, executive director of The Morris Foundation. “Our funding resources and the clinic’s focus on wellness is a great combination to help those folks in the area around the clinic change their lives for the better.”

The Morris Foundation is a Fort Worth-based foundation that was founded in 1986 by Linda and Jack Morris, and according to its website, it “invests in programs that are essential to meet the educational, health needs and social services of the vulnerable, while rigorously monitoring the impact of those investments.”

Liles said NTACHC’s focus on addressing health disparities in North Texas aligns perfectly with the foundation’s own mission of supporting “those in most need.”

“In addition to funding, we also aim to optimize the clinic’s wellness programs and expand them,” he said.

According to NTACHC’s website, all of its health centers provide preventive health services, urgent care and management of chronic illnesses, access to specialist that can provide complete and comprehensive specialty care, behavioral health services and several other forms of assistance.

Dr. Carlos Morales, board president of NTACHC, says the health center has deep roots in the Northside. He says that the organization began because “area residents, faith-based groups, as well as health and social services providers” wanted to take care of the medically underserved community in the Northside.

The Fort Worth Northside Community Health Center was created in 2002. It later became the NTACHC system, which now has clinics in Southeast Fort Worth and Arlington.

“That’s the genesis of the original location here in the Northside and it’s also a prime location because of its access to the highway,” Morales said. “I would say we have always been part of the medical safety net for this area.”

According to Morales, NTACHC serves approximately 13,000 patients each year but now with the help of the foundation’s million-dollar grant, NTACHC will have the capacity to serve an additional 7,000.

Throughout the pandemic, NTACHC has provided the people of North Texas access to coronavirus tests at its Southeast location.

The million-dollar grant to the Northside Community Health Center seemed like a sound investment for the foundation because NTACHC is federally mandated to serve disadvantaged communities and provide measurable outcomes, according to Andy Miller, head of health care & social services giving at The Morris Foundation.

“For us, it really was a good opportunity to partner with a group that was already used to reporting those types of outcomes and setting those goals,” Miller said.

“But we really were interested in the approach that the clinic was taking in developing wellness programs such as a nutrition program, a fitness program and a behavioral health program for example.”

Miller says that wellness is crucial for folks who are vulnerable, including people who are undocumented. He said that making health care accessible is more relevant now because the coronavirus pandemic has been intensifying public health disparities that were already there long before the virus hit.

“The infection rates are higher, morbidity rates are higher and mortality rate are certainly higher for vulnerable populations,” Miller said.

Miller said also says that since the dawn of COVID-19, more patients have opted for NTACHC’s financial assistance programs to receive services since the pandemic’s economic fallout has caused people to lose their jobs.

“These clinics are really on the forefront of addressing all of that,” he added.