Bon Secours – St. Petersburg Health System Engages Local Social and Senior Services in Healthy Community Initiative
Initiative Empowers Residents to Envision and Create a Healthier Community
Bon Secours – St. Petersburg Health System (Bon Secours St. Petersburg) is contributing to the positive transformation of the downtown St. Petersburg area by employing the tools of faith based community organizing. Its Healthy Community Initiative begins by listening to residents to identify areas of concern, and then working along side those who are willing, to act upon those concerns that impact quality of life in the community. The initiative is driven by Bon Secours’ commitment to Catholic Social Teaching, a tradition rooted in respect for human dignity and dedication to the common good.
Bon Secours’ Healthy Community Initiative works to find lasting solutions to social and economic challenges impacting seniors and other residents of the community living with unmet needs. The organization does this by initiating a dialogue between residents and facilitating collaboration with organizations that share a passion for justice. The Healthy Community Initiative encourages residents to leverage local assets and other under utilized resources in a more synergistic fashion.
“Bon Secours – St. Petersburg is assisting residents to develop a vision of a healthier community and an action plan to bring the shared vision into reality,” said Deb Close, Healthy Community Coordinator at Bon Secours – St. Petersburg. “Community engagement, ownership and empowerment are central to the vision, and upon establishing that level of resident involvement, goals and strategies to address symptoms of injustice will be developed.”
Over the last year, Bon Secours – St. Petersburg began expanding partnerships with residents and community social and senior service providers, parishes, municipalities and many others, such as:
- City of St. Petersburg
- St. Anthony’s Hospital
- Catholic Charities
- Pinellas County Health Department
- St. Petersburg Free Clinic
- Faith in Action for Strength Together (FAST)
- Daystar Center
Continuing the spirit of the Congregation of Bon Secours founded in 1824, Bon Secours Health System created a Mission Fund to provide funding to collaborative initiatives that support the development of holistic health and well-being, particularly for disenfranchised and marginalized people in communities served by the Bon Secours Health System. Since its inception in 1998, the Mission Fund has awarded more than 147 grants totaling $13 million across 24 domestic and international communities. Twenty-five percent of the total Mission Fund budget focuses on Healthy Community initiatives nationwide.
About Bon Secours – St. Petersburg Health System
Bon Secours - St. Petersburg Health System is comprised of Bon Secours Maria Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Care Center, a 274-bed licensed nursing care center offering skilled and long-term care nursing with a dedicated Alzheimer’s unit; a highly skilled in-patient rehabilitation program, The Center for Rehabilitation; as well as an outpatient rehabilitation program. Bon Secours St. Petersburg also includes Bon Secours Place, a 102-unit assisted living facility (ALF), and one of the first ALFs to receive Joint Commission accreditation; and Bon Secours St. Petersburg Home Health Care Services, Inc. Bon Secours - St. Petersburg also provides select community programs for at-risk elderly.
About Bon Secours Health System, Inc.
Bon Secours Health System, Inc., based in Marriottsville, Maryland, is a $2.9 billion dollar not-for-profit Catholic health system that owns, manages or joint ventures 18 acute care, 5 long term care, 5 assisted living and 6 retirement communities/senior housing and other facilities, primarily on the East Coast. Bon Secours Health System consists of more than 21,000 caregivers helping people in seven states. Its vision is to be a prophetic Catholic health ministry partnering with communities to create a more humane world, build health and social justice and provide exceptional value for those served.