Silver Spring Gets A D.C. Safety Net
Health-Care Center Branch Opens

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 15, 2008; PG03

For 20 years, Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care has delivered health-care, education and social services to largely immigrant communities at its Adams Morgan clinic in Northwest Washington.

As such suburban communities as Silver Spring and Langley Park become increasingly diverse, Mary's Center has found itself serving more Montgomery County residents. So last week, the nonprofit organization opened a primary-care clinic in the Long Branch area of Silver Spring to expand the safety net for Maryland residents.

"We expanded into Montgomery County because so many of the people we see in the District have been displaced to Montgomery County and Prince George's County," said Maria Gomez, president and chief executive of Mary's Center. "We felt we needed to follow our patients closer to their homes."

Mary's Center is just the latest District-based nonprofit group to begin operations in the Maryland suburbs. The Latin American Youth Center, which helps multicultural youth and their families in education, employment, social services, advocacy and social enterprise, has offices in Silver Spring, Riverdale and Hyattsville.

In addition, CentroNia, a child-care center in the District's Columbia Heights neighborhood that provides educational and other services to low-income children and their families, expanded to Takoma Park.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said the influx of such organizations to Montgomery is "an affirmation of the needs."

"We're having now to respond to a myriad of needs in a county that people think is ultra-wealthy," Leggett said. "We can't do it all as government, and we need to have the partnerships."

Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Montgomery), who has long been an advocate for immigrant communities, said the opening of Mary's Center in Montgomery is "one of the most exciting things I have witnessed lately."

"This is a top-notch organization," Gutierrez said. "I don't know why it took so long, but I believe we are very, very lucky to have this here."

Mary's Center in Silver Spring will offer a full range of health-care services to residents in Montgomery and Prince George's, regardless of their ability to pay or whether they have insurance.

Services at the 3,600-square-foot facility, at 8709 Flower Ave., will encompass prenatal care, pediatric and adolescent health, adult health, and obstetrical and gynecological care.

Mary's Center has partnered with Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park to open the facility. Montgomery County also provided $205,000 to help pay for its renovation.

"We got to know the Mary's Center and the good work they do in D.C.," said Jere Stocks, president of the hospital. "The work they do is absolutely inspirational, and we worked very hard to get them up to Montgomery County."

Bill Robertson, president and chief executive of Adventist HealthCare, the hospital's parent company, said the region's changing demographics are creating more needs in the suburbs.

"It used to be that the city was where you saw great need, but now it's suburbia," Robertson said.

In expanding its operations, Mary's Center received help from Venture Philanthropy Partners, a Washington-based charitable investment organization that operates much like a venture capital company. The group identifies nonprofit leaders and helps them build strong institutions, offering money, expertise and personal contacts.

Delivering a speech at the Mary's Center ribbon-cutting last week, Venture Philanthropy President and chief executive Carol Thompson Cole said the clinic is "the result of careful planning and very hard work."

"The opening of this clinic is a wonderful expansion of an organization responding to the changing needs of the community it serves," she said.

Mary's Center helps such people as Shalinee Gusain, an immigrant from India who is raising two children here. The organization has helped her with health care and literacy classes. Her daughter learned to speak English through the center.

"I have learned how to be a good parent and new ways to interact with my children," Gusain said. "Through their classes, I have evolved into a very confident person. Now my baggage is gone."

Elected officials representing the Silver Spring area hailed Mary's Center as a boon for the community. State Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) said he is "moved that we have Mary's Center for women in our neighborhood."

"This is living proof of the effectiveness of strategic philanthropy," Raskin said. "This is quite an accomplishment."

Said Del. Tom Hucker (D-Montgomery): "This side of the county has been historically underserved, and maternal and child care has been underappreciated and underfunded for many, many years."

Del. Heather R. Mizeur (D-Montgomery) said Mary's Center provides critically important services.

"People think because we're in Montgomery County, our roads are paved with gold and we don't have needs in our community," she said.

Richard Helfrich, Montgomery's deputy health director, said the county's increasing cultural and socioeconomic diversity is creating a "suburban pattern of poverty." He said about a third of Montgomery's residents are foreign-born and many of them have low or moderate incomes.

"We welcome Mary's Center to our safety-net provider community," Helfrich said. "They will be our tent."

Sally Rudney, executive director of the Montgomery County Community Foundation, said many of the donors and philanthropists she works with "have no idea what Montgomery County is really like, what kinds of needs are here."