Congratulations to the 2024 Seed Grant Winners!
The Street Medicine Institute’s Seed Grant program furthers SMI’s mission of assisting communities to establish their own Street Medicine programs. Now in its fourth year, the program facilitates and enhances the direct provision of health care to rough sleepers where they live by providing communities and clinicians with expert training, guidance, and support to develop and grow their own Street Medicine programs. We were delighted to have received a record twenty-two deserving and qualified applications in 2024.
SMI is pleased to announce that this year's Seed Grant recipients are Mosaic Community Health in Central Oregon and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Both programs will receive a year of SMI Membership and free registration for the International Street Medicine Symposium. Further, each has been awarded a grant in the amount of $10,000 and a year of intensive consultative support from Street Medicine experts. Congratulations!
Mosaic Community Health: Street Medicine Pilot Program
Mosaic Community Health is a federally qualified health center serving Central Oregon. Mosaic’s mission is to provide trusted quality care, with compassion and support for all. Mosaic believes in meeting their patients in their current situation and walking beside them as they strive to reach their optimum health.
Their current Mobile Clinic team has been piloting street rounds in two different locations. On any given day, a multidisciplinary, team-based model that provides wraparound care to patients consists of a mix of a Provider, Medical Assistant, and a Community Health Worker. Through this grant, Mosaic will grow their pilot effort into a sustainable street medicine program. Their overarching goal for the next twelve months is to decrease barriers to health and well-being by bringing care directly to individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness by expanding their street medicine program to multiple locations and increasing weekly rounds.
Baylor University Medical Center Street Medicine
With over 4,200 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, Dallas has a broad array of resources aimed at ending homelessness but does not have a street medicine program. Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) is well-positioned to scale the street medicine model to reach more people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. This will represent the transition from a reactionary to a proactive approach in caring for the unsheltered homeless patients who ultimately receive care in the BUMC Emergency Department.
The BUMC Street Medicine team will include a Medical Director, Advanced Practice Provider, and Registered Nurse/Paramedic who will join outreach teams on a regular cadence each week. The Street Medicine program will focus on bringing medical services to unsheltered people in Downtown Dallas, including urgent care, health screening and physicals, wound care, medications and disease management, and screening and diagnostic tests.
