- Mays Foundation
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Established in 2000, the Dr. David and Bevelyn Mays Foundation (The Mays Foundation) is a 501 (c)(3) designated non-profit organization, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Its mission is to serve as a catalyst within communities to improve public-health awareness; it initiates early detection and prevention programs; and it encourages medically-at-risk individuals to seek timely intervention to improve quality of life and long-term health. [3]
The Mays Foundation has sponsored and collaborated in a number of health-related initiatives in underserved and underprivileged areas of the US South. These include programs with a focus on:
- disease prevention and early detection,
- health education and wellness, and
- health services development for the homeless and undeserved communities.
The Foundation and its programs have been recognized and supported by senators, congressmen, state representatives and the Governor of the State of Louisiana. [4]
One of the foundation's target communities is an area in East Baton Rouge Parish known as North Baton Rouge. According to the 1990 to 1995 Estimated Population By Census Tract, obtained from the East Baton Rouge City-Parish Planning Commission, the northern section of the City of Baton Rouge (North Baton Rouge) has a population of about 140,000 individuals. Of background interest, industrial plant workers once primarily occupied this area of the city. In the fifties and sixties these plant workers migrated away to the developing suburbs leaving the north Baton Rouge area in decline. This area of the city significantly increased in population immediately post- Hurricane Katrina and is composed of minority, disproportionately poor and working poor residents. As history has demonstrated, this combination of circumstances lends itself to a dramatically higher risk for a greater number of debilitating diseases. In 2005, through a noteworthy collaborative effort with the Baton Rouge Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Louisiana State University Health Science Center-Earl K. Long, Southern University and other healthcare advocates, the Dr. David and Bevelyn Mays Community Health Center began delivering substantial primary and preventive health services to this area of the community.[1]
References
- ^ [1],[2] Speech given to Delta Regional Authority
Categories:- Non-profit organizations based in the United States
- United States philanthropic organization stubs
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