Oak Orchard Health honored by Homeless Alliance for opening warming centers
Provided photo: Pictured from left include Kenneth Gholston, Chairman of the Board for Homeless Alliance of Western New York; Karen Kinter, Oak Orchard Health CEO; and Rashied McDuffie, Esq., deputy mayor City of Buffalo.
Press Release, Oak Orchard Health
ALBION – Oak Orchard Health (OOH) is proud to receive the Community Advocacy and Education Award for its work in the communities it serves.
This award from the Homeless Alliance of Western New York recognizes exemplary individual or organizational efforts to advocate for homeless people through public education initiatives, awareness campaigns, conference presentations, or published research.
“The warming center initiatives that Oak Orchard Health leads in Orleans, Brockport, and Wyoming County are truly remarkable, and the Homeless Alliance of Western New York is so grateful for the work with those most vulnerable in rural areas of Western New York,” said the Homeless Alliance of Western New York.
As a Federally Qualified Health Center, Oak Orchard serves 30,000 patients, including the homeless, farmworkers, and people of all races, genders, and ages. In addition, OOH has opened two warming centers (with a third coming soon), working with its community partners and funding from Monroe County (for the Brockport Community Warming Center) and Greater Rochester Health Foundation (Warsaw).
A Warming Center provides a warm, safe place for the unhoused when temperatures drop below 32 degrees (Code Blue).
Photo by Tom Rivers: Karen Kinter, CEO of Oak Orchard Health, speaks during a celebration for a new warming center at Christ Church on Dec. 20, 2023. The site offers cots, coffee, tea, soup and hygiene kits when the temperature dropped below 32 degrees at night.
“It is truly an honor for Oak Orchard Health to be selected for the Community Advocacy and Education Award,” said Karen Kinter, CEO Oak Orchard Health. “In December 2023, we opened our first Warming Center in Orleans County. On December 23, the Brockport Community Warming Center will open. Oak Orchard Health has taken the lead on administrative and staffing of these centers.”
Many do not think there is a large, unhoused community in rural areas where our health centers reside, but that’s untrue. The Orleans County Warming Center served 63 people on the 110 Code Blue days. New York State mandates that if the weather drops below 32 degrees, it is considered “Code Blue,” and the community must provide shelter.
The Homeless Alliance of Western New York
The Homeless Alliance of Western New York is the lead agency for the Continuum of Care (CoC) and the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Erie, Niagara, Genesee, Wyoming, and Orleans counties.
Their program is designed to promote community-wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness, providing funding for efforts by nonprofit providers and state and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families and communities by homelessness; promote access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
About Oak Orchard Health
Initially founded in 1973, Oak Orchard Health has grown from serving farmworkers into an integrated health center with multiple locations providing health care services to 30,000 people, including primary care, pediatric care, vision and dental care, behavioral health, as well as nutrition and outreach services for everyone located in the communities they serve.
Oak Orchard Health is a recognized patient-centered medical home and 501(c) nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) located in the towns of Albion, Alexander, Batavia, Brockport, Corfu, Hornell, Medina, and Warsaw, New York. With the addition of the Mobile Medical Unit and Mobile Dental Unit, we will further increase access to care for our patients.
