By: Ashmar Mandou

Congressman Luis Gutierrez was in town Wednesday morning to receive the 2011 Distinguished Community Health Advocate Award from the National Association of Community Health Center at Alivio Medical Center. Gutierrez, who received the award for his efforts in the Second Session of 111 Congress to preserve, strengthen, and expand access to America’s medically undeserved, thanked members of Alivio Medical Center for their continual support and outreach to undeserved families.

Alivio Medical Center marked National Health Center Week 2011 (NHCW) with the award presentation as part of a week-long campaign to raise awareness about the mission and accomplishments of America’s Health Centers as local solutions. The theme of this year’s NHCW was “Celebrating America’s Health Centers: Serving Locally, Leading Nationally,” to underscore how health centers deliver a unique approach that targets health needs and saves taxpayer dollars. “The National Association of Community Health Center forms strong partnerships of people, governments and communities who work together to meet the unique and diverse health conditions of the community,” said Congressman Luis Gutierrez. “Although health centers rely on a portion of federal funding, they are not a bureaucracy. In fact, they are run from the bottom up, by a patient-majority governing board who guides how limited resources can be effectively directed to meet the health care needs of the community.” To find out more about National Health Center Week, visit www.healthcenterweek.org.

The mission of the National Association of Community Health Centers is to promote high quality, comprehensive and affordable health care that is coordinated, culturally and linguistically competent, and community directed for all medically undeserved populations. Alivio Medical Center is a bilingual, bicultural organization committed to providing access to quality cost-effective health care to the Latino, predominantly Mexican community, the uninsured and under-insured, and not to the exclusion of other cultures and races.