In March, 2005, VPP entered into an investment partnership with Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care, a dynamic organization whose mission is to build better futures through health care, education, and social services that embrace a culturally diverse community. VPP’s investment is designed to help Mary’s Center achieve their aspiration to strengthen overall community health by delivering integrated human services to support individual and family well-being and by expanding their presence to serve more children and families on a broader scale in the National Capital Region.

The Investment Agreement will provide Mary’s Center with strategic assistance and funding of up to $3,000,000 over a four-year period (this is in addition to the $386,000 already provided for the business planning phase). During the first phase of this investment partnership, VPP will provide funding and strategic assistance to help Mary’s Center enhance and augment their infrastructure and begin their expansion in accordance with their new status as a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC). Under the terms of this agreement, $800,000 in funding will be disbursed to Mary’s Center in the first year, with the remaining $2,200,000 in funding contingent upon Mary’s Center’s achievement of annual milestones over the remaining term of the investment partnership.

OPPORTUNITY
Mary’s Center aspires to strengthen overall community health by delivering integrated human services to support individual and family well-being and by expanding their presence to serve more children and families on a broader scale in the National Capital Region. They are working to better integrate basic human services by connecting a predetermined set of health, social, and education services for families in the heart of the immigrant community of Washington, DC and linking them together to create a sense of “connectedness” to, and within, their community. In addition to expanding services and facilities at its current location in Adams Morgan, they hope to expand to Ward 4 of Washington, DC and to several locations in Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland adjacent to DC, and have already begun discussions with key local leaders and institutions there.

VPP’s funding and strategic assistance supports Mary’s Center in its work to reach its long-term goals, including:

• Increasing the capacity of the existing management team that can develop, expand, and manage high quality programs in multiple locations;
• Augmenting the information and management systems infrastructure to support future growth;
• Opening a second primary service location in Ward 4 in fulfillment of Mary’s Center FQHC obligations;
• Opening at least two additional primary service locations to provide integrated medical, educational, and social services to underserved families;
• Opening three new school-based clinics in Washington, DC to provide health care and health promotion activities to school children in the District; and
• Continuing growth trajectory by partnering with organizations that can offer financial, space, personnel and other resources to offer delivery of integrated services and accelerate the formation of Mary’s Center’s advocacy, fundraising, and outreach relationships in new neighborhoods and jurisdictions.

INVESTMENT RATIONALE

1. Leadership: Maria Gomez is among the strongest leaders in the region, and she has been able to demonstrate her abilities through the continuous growth and expansion of Mary’s Center. She is held in the highest regard by the community she serves and has proven she can raise large amounts of funding, manage a growing and complex enterprise, acquire and build facilities, and navigate successfully through difficult political conditions.
   
2. High-performing nonprofit: Mary’s Center is among the leading community-based organizations in the region and is fast developing a national reputation.
   
3. Filling a critical need: Public and private medical, health care, educational, and children’s services institutions in the region regard Mary’s Center as essential to the health and well-being of the city, a critical link in the city’s tenuous health care system, and especially essential to the communities it serves. The immigrant population of the Washington metropolitan region is the fastest growing, yet government and social service agencies have been unable to develop and provide the range of specialized programs and services in culturally sensitive ways that meet community demand. Mary’s Center has the capability to do so, as well as to do so in other localities struggling with the same issues.
   
4. Proven best practices: Research demonstrates that early intervention, family support, and the “one-stop-shopping center” concept (comprehensive and integrated services in one location) save millions of dollars in future health care, foster care, social service, and long-term special education costs.
   
5. Demonstrated performance in achieving outcomes: While Mary’s Center is committed to improving its focus and implementation of outcomes design and assessment, it has some impressive data to report thus far. Some highlights include:
• Adult Literacy: The average gain on the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System test was 100% higher than the national average gain.


• Parent-Child Education: Parent attendance at Even Start conferences or informal education sessions at their child’s school increased from 44 to 61 percent in one year.


• Immunization: In 2002, 90% of Mary’s Center 2-year -olds were immunized vs. 76% of 2 year olds citywide.


• Infant Mortality: Mary’s Center mothers had no (0%) infant mortality, compared with 12% for DC (2000).


• Healthy Babies: A recent study conducted by the Center for Applied Research and Urban Policy reported the incidence of low-weight births for Mary’s Center Community Healthy Start participants was 3% in 2002 compared with the DC rate of nearly 12%.


• Teen Mothers: Premature births for teen mothers of all race groups enrolling in Mary’s Center after delivery programs, “Teen Mothers Take Charge” (TMTC) was 11% compared to 20% for African American mothers and 32% for Latina mothers city-wide. Moreover, for the 500 teens enrolled in TMTC, no teen mothers have reported a repeat pregnancy, whereas nationally, 20% of teen mothers are pregnant again within one year of childbirth and 25% have another child within two years.

SUCCESS FACTORS
We believe this investment in Mary’s Center will be successful because of the following key factors:

1. Outstanding and stable leadership of Maria Gomez, founder, president, and CEO;


2. Large market need for services;


3. Success in capitalizing on sources of revenue—public, private, and third-party billing services;


4. Strong and persistent community and political support from city council members, the DC Board of Education, and the Mayor’s Office of Latino Affairs;
   
5. Outstanding reputation among medical and health care professionals;
   
6. Ability to form viable long-term partnerships with leading regional medical and educational institutions, including March of Dimes, Georgetown University, Children’s Hospital, and the DC Departments of Health, Mental Health, and Early Childhood Education;


7. Organizational record of continuous improvement and successful expansion; and


8. Quality programs and services supported by numerous independent program evaluations.

Mary's Center Website