Media Advisory

March 22, 2005

St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities and Interfaith Health Program to Award $75K Compassion Grant to Fifth Ward Community

Who: St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities What: Interfaith Health Program site visit

Where: Victuals Restaurant, 3814 Lyons Street at Pannel

Date: Tuesday, March 29

Time(s):

• 11:30 – noon: tour of Project MOVE at Scroggins Elementary
• Noon – 1 p.m.: Speakers, lunch program, check presentation
• 1 – 1:30 p.m.: Tour of Northeast Health Center

Speakers:

• Judy Harris, Neighborhood Services, City of Houston
• Harriet Arvey, Communities in Schools
• Rev. Clemons, Pleasant Hill Baptist Church
• Gary Gunderson, Interfaith Health Program
• Carla Cooper, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities

Photo Ops:

• Children being treated in Project MOVE’s pediatric mobile unit
• Tour of Project MOVE and Northeast Health Center

Background: This event will celebrate a $75K grant that is being awarded by the Interfaith Health Program (IHP) of Atlanta’s Emory University. IHP originally awarded a $123,000 grant to St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities (SLEHC) in 2002, as part of President George W. Bush’s $24.8 million commitment to faith- and community-based organizations. SLEHC used the grant to support Project MOVE, which sponsors a school-based pediatric mobile unit designed to serve medically underserved children in the Fifth Ward community. Made possible with the collaboration of Communities in Schools, Project MOVE’s mission is to provide free health services for children while helping parents identify a medical home and affordable health insurance. Project MOVE’s Pediatric Mobile Unit is a joint effort with St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities, Communities in Schools, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School and School of Nursing, Houston Independent School District and the Fifth Ward Health Collaborative.

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St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System comprises the flagship St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, founded in 1954 by the Episcopal Diocese of Texas; St. Luke’s Community Medical Center-The Woodlands, opened in 2003; St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities, the largest charity in Houston devoted to health; and Kelsey-Seybold Management, LLP, overseeing 21 area clinic locations. St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital is home to the Texas Heart Institute, founded in 1962 by Denton A. Cooley, MD., and consistently ranked among the top 10 cardiology and heart surgery centers in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. St. Luke’s was the first hospital in Texas named a Magnet hospital for nursing excellence and the Health System has been recognized by Fortune as among “100 Best Companies to Work For” (2002, 2004, 2005) and by the Houston Business Journal as the top healthcare employer in Houston for three consecutive years.