ADVISORY/Drexel Family Health Service Facility at 11th Street Corridor Officially Opens for Business.

Assignment/News Editors

ADVISORY...for Fri. (Sept. 20)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

What:              The new 11th Street Family Health Services of
                   Drexel University, located along the 11th Street
                   Corridor near four North Philadelphia public
                   housing developments, will officially open for
                   business with a three-hour open house on Friday.

                   News media can tour the a 17,000 square foot,
                   two-story, $3.3 million facility that makes
                   low-cost healthcare more accessible to the nearly
                   30,000 residents of one of Philadelphia's most
                   impoverished and medically underserved
                   neighborhoods.

                   Managed by the Drexel College of Nursing and Health
                   Professions (CNHP), the Center has with seven exam
                   rooms, counseling rooms, nutritional learning
                   classroom, a kitchen and gymnasium complete with
                   free weights and cardiovascular equipment.


When:              Friday, September 20, 2002
                   11 a.m. - 2 p.m.


Where:             850 North 11th Street


Background:        Beginning in 1996, the city's housing authority and
                   CNHP began working with North Philadelphia
                   residents on a plan to improve primary care and
                   health promotion/disease prevention programs. Led
                   by Dr. Patricia Gerrity, CNHP's associate dean for
                   community programs, the plans resulted in a
                   nurse-managed community health center in November
                   1998 at the Harrison Plaza Community Center. Last
                   October, CNHP broke ground on a new center with
                   financial assistance from a variety of sources,
                   including Pennsylvania's department of health and
                   Philadelphia's departments of public health and
                   housing authority.

www.drexel.edu/dateline