The Rogue River School District, about 9 miles east of Grants Pass, has opened a new early learning and wellness center, funded with $3 million in state lottery bonds. District leaders say the facility will fill a critical gap in local health and child care services through partnerships with La Clinica and Head Start.
The new health center serves children ages 2 to 18 who live within district boundaries, regardless of whether they're enrolled there. Families can make appointments with medical and behavioral health providers. Community resource specialists are also available to help families who need assistance with food insecurity, bill payments and other needs.
Elise Travertini Windbigler, business development director at La Clinica, said it usually takes two years for the nonprofit's health centers to gain traction in a community.
"My long-term hope is that families and youth really get used to using the services," she said. "That it's this access point where families don't have to travel really far to get the care that they need for their youth."
She hopes that being able to get care locally will keep kids healthy and prevent them from missing school, as well as parents from missing work.
La Clinica offers medical, mental health and other care at 30 locations, including 20 school-based centers. It focuses on providing access to low-income people and offers an income-based sliding scale for patients without insurance.
As of July, Oregon had 89 school-based health centers statewide.
A 2021 OHSU study found that the Rogue River region has significant unmet health needs, including too few primary care and mental health providers.
Superintendent Patrick Lee thinks La Clinica and Head Start will benefit local families.
"Both of those are going to have generational impacts as we go through the years that are going to improve kids’ mental health, their mental outlook, their physical health, their academic performance," he said. "We see this as a huge step towards improving many facets of their lives."
Lee said the district is contributing $240,000 in startup costs for La Clinica. Grants have covered $180,000 sof far. Head Start is paying for some utility costs, while the district covers maintenance and custodial services for the building.
Head Start has opened two preschool classrooms in the center, both of which are already full. Head Start also converted its old building to a program serving children from prenatal to age 3.
"It's been really lovely to have the elementary school there so past students and even siblings can still see each other through the fence line and communicate," said Stephanie Finch, director of Southern Oregon Head Start’s programs for ages 0 to 5.
Head Start provides child development, education and support services to low-income families, pregnant women, people experiencing homelessness and children in foster care.
Finch is excited about this unique partnership with a health care provider and about filling an important need in the region.
"Southern Oregon is a child care desert," she said. "We had a very long wait list, and we've been able to successfully enroll those children, and we still have a wait list, so there's more opportunity for other children as well in the future."
