I used to live at the Prado Condo in downtown West Palm Beach. My 8th floor unit looked down onto what is now The Center Philanthropy, and each morning while I drank my coffee on the balcony I would watch as people came in to work each morning but knew nothing about what was going on inside.
The Center for Philanthropy is run by The Community Foundation and offers office space for nonprofit organizations. The building has community rooms and conference space available to nonprofit organizations for special events or educational and charitable activities. Last year, 100 events were hosted by local nonprofit organizations at the Center for Philanthropy.
The beautiful 13-year-old Spanish-style architecture makes a beautiful setting for non-profit work and collaboration. (note: I’m not sure it’s technically Spanish architecture, but it seemed like that). It struck me as a Co-working space for non-profits.
The Palm Healthcare Foundation
Yesterday I had a chance to talk to the newest non-profit that moved in, The Palm Healthcare Foundation.
The Palm Healthcare Foundation was formed in 2001 as the successor to Good Samaritan Medical Center Foundation and St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation & over the last 12 years of its existence has donated $55 million to fulfill their mission to strengthen the healthcare system. This includes among many other things, grants for Palm Beach Atlantic to set up their School of Pharmacy and $1 million scholarship dollars to local students who attend nursing school in Palm Beach County.
One of the focuses that I was drawn to was their education programs among primary care physicians to help them identify Mental health problems and offer proper treatment. This is so often neglected, yet such an important illness to diagnose early.
PBC Diabetes Week is November 9th – 18th
One of the reasons I wanted to get a tour of Palm Healthcare Foundation’s offices was because we are right in the middle of PBC Diabetes week, and Palm Healthcare Foundation’sis doing screenings around the county. The goal of Diabetes Week is to inform people about their risk and link high-risk individuals with available and affordable healthcare. In an event on Monday in Boynton 700 people showed up with 450 being screened for diabetes and HIV. For these people, this was truly a life-saving event.
November 12
Community Health Center of West Palm Beach
8:00am – 8:00pm
Free physicals and free glucose screenings
West Palm Beach Health Center
9:00am – 12:00 pm and 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Free diabetes screenings, infromation and nutrition education
Peter Blum YMCA of Boca Raton
9:00am – 11:00 am and 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Free diabetes screenings
November 15
Family Health Night
Downtown at the Gardens, 11701 Lake Victoria Gardens, Palm Beach Gardens
5:00pm – 7:00pm
Music, Free Diabetes screening, Cooking demo by Lincoln Culinary Insitute, Diabetes friedly recipe by Sally Savareird from Kool 105,5, Free Zumba fitness, Free blood pressure testing, and Free food samples
Over 120,000 people in Palm Beach County have diabetes and half of them are unaware of it. It’s truly a good reason to help spread the word.
Let’s Move! Palm Beach County – January 2014
So here’s the fun part. Next January, Palm Healthcare Foundation is taking part of the national Let’s Move! campaign, that asks individuals to complete 30 minutes of physical activity every day and throughout the month of January to log their minutes online. There will also be other events focused around walking during the month.
Channel 12 and WIRK will be involved and setting up teams to compete and see who can log the most minutes of walking. I am pretty sure that if we put our mind to it Team Clematis can out-walk team Suzanne Boyd, Eric Roby and Tiny!
I’m so confident in the awesomeness of our team, that I’m nominating Jesse Bailey (aka WalkableWPB) as our Team Captain. Let’s WALK!
A big thanks to Marge and the Palm Healthcare Foundation team for staying late to give me the tour. What they do is very impressive & so much more than I can fit in a short blog entry. Keep up the good work!
This blog entry is day 11 of my 30-Day blogging challenge where I have committed to post a blog every day.
Please read the previous blog entries in this series:
Day 11: Honoring our Veterans on Clematis Street – the West Palm Beach Parade!
Day 10: Muses & Visionaries – M&V Magazine & a short chat with Roy Assad
Day 9: What does diversity mean to you? WebMonday & bringing everyone in!
Day 8: Weekend is almost here – Fun things to do in West Palm Beach
Day 7: J. Flynn opening on Clematis – this is an Irish Gastropub, it’s all about the food.
Day 6: Why every small business owner should read the Costco Connection
Day 5: Bee Organics – The new organic café and “lifestyle space” in Downtown West Palm Beach
Day 4: Introducing BarCamp Palm Beach – Monday the 18th of November
Day 3: My top 5 Beaches in Palm Beach County
Day 2: City of West Palm Beach Chili Cookoff
Day 1: It’s November, and I’m Starting the 30-Day Blogging Challenge!