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Purpose Prize

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The Latest from CoGenerate

Event Recording: Can Intergenerational Connection Heal Us?

Event Recording: Can Intergenerational Connection Heal Us?

A new report from CoGenerate, Can Intergenerational Connection Heal Us?, reveals the critical role that hundreds, if not thousands, of community organizations play in bringing generations together to reduce social isolation and loneliness while providing connection,...

Join the fight to save AmeriCorps

Join the fight to save AmeriCorps

AmeriCorps is in jeopardy.  Like so many other critical programs and services, AmeriCorps is at risk of being dismantled by DOGE, with programs shuttered and 85% of agency staff now on administrative leave.  As a result, nearly 40,000 communities across the nation may...

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Eugene Cheslock

Parker Family Health Clinic/Volunteers in Health, Inc.
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006

Enhancing community health through volunteer health professionals

After 35 years in medical practice, Dr. Eugene Cheslock was considering retiring in the late 1990s. Instead he went face to face with a problem he could no longer ignore – the increasing number of medically uninsured and the resulting strain on the health care system. In his own community in Red Bank, New Jersey, the problem was particularly glaring: 95 percent of those in the rapidly growing local Latino community had no health insurance; 30 percent of African Americans in town were in the same boat. In July 2000, Cheslock helped open The Parker Family Health Center in a converted trailer. The free medical clinic provides comprehensive coverage for the working poor. Volunteer professionals provide pediatric care, including well checks and immunizations, gynecology services, family practice/internal medicine, ophthalmology, children’s dentistry, diabetes and hypertension management, social service referrals, and assistance with insurance applications. The center has recorded more than 30,000 patient visits. Doctors volunteer 3,000 hours annually at the clinic, while nurses donate another 2,000 hours.