Golden Valley Health Centers
Celebrating 50 Years
PROCLAMATION
WHEREAS: It has been said that one’s health is one’s greatest possession. Golden Valley Health Centers has built their business, spanning half a century around this very belief; and WHEREAS: The ideology that everyone should have access to health care has been central to Golden Valley’s work over the past five decades and remains their guiding principle today; and WHEREAS: In 1962 when President John F. Kennedy signed the Migrant Health Act, federal funds were authorized to open community migrant health centers that would provide care for this critical farmworker population. It was later mandated that these centers make their services accessible to all who need them.
Golden Valley Health Centers has always made that their priority, and never denied services to a patient in need; and
WHEREAS: In 1972, Golden Valley Health Centers began as a small Migrant Health Services program affiliated with Merced General Hospital. Since then, Golden Valley Health Centers has expanded greatly to meet community needs across Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties, now serving roughly 175,000 patients each year through 45 clinical locations in the region; and WHEREAS: Golden Valley Health Centers’ (GVHC) focus has not wavered since 1972. Maintaining its mission and strong desire to increase access to healthcare in the lives of migrant workers, who toil to sustain our largely agricultural economy; and
WHEREAS: Golden Valley Health Centers is a locally owned and operated non-profit organization that serves as a critical economic engine, helping to power the local economy by generating millions of dollars in combined efforts in some of the region’s most impacted deprived communities; and WHEREAS: Golden Valley Health Centers is a fully accredited FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center) offering quality medical, dental, behavioral health, vision, and other specialties at our health centers. With services that include urgent care and school-based health centers throughout the Central Valley; and WHEREAS: Golden Valley Health Centers continues to prove an effective means of overcoming barriers to health care access, including geography, language, income, and insurance status, and in doing so, improves health care outcomes and reduces health care system costs.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that I, Dennis McCord as Mayor of the City of Patterson, do hereby officially congratulate Golden Valley Health Centers for always putting the needs of the community first. I encourage all citizens of Patterson to visit Golden Valley Health Centers where every patient’s “Health is their Priority.”
IN WITNESS, HEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the official seal of the City of Patterson to be affixed this 5th day of April 2022. ___________________________
Dennis McCord
Mayor