Mission
The Bayview Hunters Point Clinic (part of Marin City Health and Wellness Center, founded in 2006) provides innovative health and wellness services to all, with the goal of African American Health Equity. As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), we exist to provide excellent, integrated healthcare for those using Medi-Cal.
Preserving Dr. Coleman’s Legacy in Bayview Hunters Point
Dr. Arthur Coleman was Bayview’s first African American physician, and served the community for more than 50 years. In 1960 he built the Arthur H. Coleman Medical Center, our Bayview home, as a mecca for African American health where Black practitioners provided a range of healthcare specialties for residents of this historic Black community. When we expanded to this site in 2016, the building was vacant; shortly after, Dr. Coleman’s family lost it in a tax lien sale to a real estate developer with no knowledge of its cultural and social significance to the community. We have a 20-year lease with the new owner to preserve essential health services to the community. This is why we care…
- Hidden History of an African American clinic in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point on KRON-TV 4.
- Mini-documentary on Bayview lives touched by Dr. Coleman with interviews of those who remember his important work as a physician and attorney.
- Gentrification as a Public Health Crisis community event at the Bayview Opera House, where health experts and elected officials honored Dr. Coleman’s legacy and raised awareness about the need for Black health equity.
- San Francisco Landmark status for the Arthur H. Coleman Medical Center, recognizing the cultural and historic importance of this building to residents of Bayview Hunters Point.
- Returning healthcare to the Arthur H. Coleman Medical Center and our opening celebration in March 2016.
- Dr. Coleman’s 2002 tributes by the SF Chronicle, when he passed away at age 82 and the year before, while he was still actively practicing medicine at age 81.
Donate
The Bayview Hunters Point Clinic has secured a 20-year lease from the new owner to preserve access to healthcare services. We are investing over $2M to bring the building to current code with state-of-the-art equipment where doctors, dentists, therapists, recovery services, midwives, case managers and health educators provide care for all residents of Bayview Hunters Point.
Social Determinants of Health
The Social Determinants of Health connect environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age to a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. In simple terms, this means that poverty makes people sick: there is a direct correlation between health and wealth, and poverty and illness. Low-income minority neighborhoods tend to have fewer green spaces, streetlights, bike paths and sidewalks, playgrounds, and full-service grocery stores. Across the U.S., African Americans face the worst health outcomes.
Infographic source: Families USA http://familiesusa.org/product/african-american-health-disparities-compared-to-non-hispanic-whites
Learn about Structural Racism
African American working class families who moved from across the South for Bay Area shipyard jobs during WWII were restricted from buying real estate by “redlining.” This committed entire communities to generations of poverty because they never had that initial investment of a home: the nest egg that enabled millions of U.S. citizens to join the middle class.
Read about the reality of what it means to be Black in America:
- Waking Up White (D. Irving)
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (B.Stevenson)
- White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (T.Wise)
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (M.Alexander)
- Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (J.Degruy)
- Between the World and Me (T.Coates)
Gentrification: A Public Health Crisis
Diversity and gentrification can disrupt inter-generational support systems when low-income residents can no longer afford to live near family. Hear our CEO talk about how this affects Black communities.
African American health and wellness services have returned to Bayview Hunters Point in the historic Arthur H. Coleman Medical Center. Dr. Coleman was Bayview’s first African American physician. He built this medical center in the 1960s as a hub for Black practitioners and residents, and served this community for over 50 years. Sadly, in 2016 this historic building was lost in a tax lien sale. Now the Arthur H. Coleman Medical Center is owned by a real estate investor with no knowledge or concern about this this historic center for Black health equity. For more information, contact [email protected].
Research on Health Disparities
The U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion created a tool to track Leading Health Indicators: critical health issues that—if tackled appropriately—will dramatically reduce the leading causes of death and preventable illnesses. You can explore their data using the widget below to:
- View health disparities by demographics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, family income, disability status, geographic location, age)
- Navigate data and view changes in those disparities over time
- Compare data points for each population group, as well as the range of estimates between each group
- Display all rates, rate ratios, standard errors, confidence intervals, and technical details about data collection methods