Baptist Beaches Gives HOPE to Homeless

Jacksonville, Florida, March 13, 2008 -- On March 13, 2008, Baptist Medical Center Beaches Administrator Mark Slyter presented a $10,000 check to The Sulzbacher Center's Director of Behavioral Health Services, Dr. Richard C. Christensen. The gift will make professional mental health services available to homeless men, women and children living in the beaches area of Jacksonville. These services will be provided through The Sulzbacher Center's Homeless Outreach Program Expansion, or HOPE Team, which began operations at the beaches on January 22, 2008.

"As the community hospital, Baptist Beaches is committed to continuously improving the access to mental and physical health services," said Slyter, "We are encouraged by this new partnership as it allows us to treat patients proactively, where as previously they would have delayed the search for care until it was an emergency."

Sulzbacher Center President and CEO Audrey McKibbin Moran said, "Baptist Health has been a supporter of The Sulzbacher Center since 1995. We are very excited about the opportunity to continue our long partnership by working with Baptist Medical Center Beaches to address the mental health needs of the homeless in a constructive way."

HOPE Beaches is the newest program offered by The Sulzbacher Center, a Jacksonville-based provider of comprehensive services to homeless men, women and children. Over the last seven years, the Downtown HOPE team has made over 5,500 referrals for homeless individuals to receive shelter, substance abuse treatment, medical, dental, vision and psychiatric care. HOPE Beaches -- founded on this very successful model -- will provide the same linkage of services for the homeless population at the beach. The ultimate goal of this program, and of all programs at The Sulzbacher Center, is to move individuals into stable housing.

The Sulzbacher Center's expansion to the beaches was made possible by a $200,000 grant by Bank of America to The Sulzbacher Center. Beaches Emergency Assistance Ministries (B.E.A.M.) provides office space for the program's two full-time staff members and the cities of Jacksonville, Atlantic and Neptune Beach have all contributed to a new van dedicated to the HOPE Beaches program. This collaboration between the for-profit, the non-profit and government sectors is a model for communities nationwide.

Since 1995, the Sulzbacher Center has provided the opportunity for homeless men, women and children to achieve a better life. The center's comprehensive programs and services include street outreach, daily meals, safe shelter, case management support, job placement assistance, substance abuse counseling, medical, psychiatric, dental and vision care as well as scattered-site housing. Every day, the Sulzbacher Center is home to more than three hundred homeless members of our community - one-third of whom are children. For more information, please visit our Web site: www.sulzbachercenter.org.