Mission and History

The purpose of Maple City Health Care Center is:

 

a) to foster healthy community in our neighborhood by providing and promoting affordable, accessible, and integrated quality care, and

 

b) to articulate and promote our experience as a sustainable model.

Mission

Maple City Health Care Center

History

A group of low-income residents, community leaders, and a doctor launched Maple City Health Care Center in the spring of 1988. 

 

Dr. James Nelson Gingerich moved with his family to Goshen in August of that year as the Center’s founding physician and medical director.

 

In late 1988, the City of Goshen offered its north side fire station.  Volunteers renovated the fire station and in February 1989, residents of north and east Goshen began visiting the Center for affordable health care.

 

As the neighborhood welcomed more and more Spanish speaking residents, Maple City Health Care Center added bilingual staff.

 

By 1995, the Center had a 10 person staff and was a medical home for hundreds of families.  A building project in 1997 doubled the space and the Center hired its first full time Executive Director, Paulette Chaponniere.

 

In the next 5 years, the Center hired a second physician and furthered its goal of integrating care by adding counseling, eye care, dental care, and social services.  By the year 2000, the Center was a medical home for thousands of our neighbors and provided more than $500,000 worth of medical care each year at rates that low-income people could afford.

 

Founded on the principal that the physical health of individuals and the health of the community are interrelated, the Center has, in recent years, hosted bilingual / bicultural groups of people who help each other with pregnancy and with managing chronic illness.