Partnership for Good Health

Greater Meridian Health Center (GMHC) is a Black-led, Federally Qualified Health Center. Incorporated in 1986, GMHC is located in a persistent poverty county in eastern Mississippi and serves approximately 8,000 patients annually. Eighty-seven percent of the patients are people of color, and ninety-four percent earn incomes below the federal poverty level. Looking to bridge healthcare access gaps even further, GMHC approached HOPE to finance a satellite clinic in Macon, Mississippi, a small town of 2,500 residents – of whom four out of five are Black. In the absence of the clinic, local residents would need to drive over an hour for primary care and dental services.

In total, the expansion would cost $1.7 million; however, the specialized nature of the project required multiple partners to finance the capital stack. HOPE led efforts to assemble a loan package using its own capital and drawing on resources provided by one of HOPE’s bank partners and a federal agency dedicated to rural development to bring the project to fruition.