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The Community Health Center will soon step in to bridge the South Side’s health care services gap by offering a broad array of services, along with a walk-in retail pharmacy, in a new facility known as VHP at West Lincoln Street, at 440 W. Lincoln St., Easton, Pa.
The South Side neighborhood has long been considered a medically underserved area, making it a perfect fit for Valley Health Partners’ Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC-LA) model, designed to provide essential care to vulnerable members of the community. The neighborhood is also classified as a “food desert,” where affordable, healthy food options are scarce within walking distance.
Valley Health Partners’ South Side expansion plan encompasses a wide range of services, including extensions to its existing primary care, dental, vision and pediatrics practices based in Allentown. VHP Family Health Center, VHP Children’s Clinic, VHP Community Vision Center and VHP Community Smiles, all with integrated behavioral health and social services, along with an entity-owned pharmacy, will all open at the new site. VHP Centro de Salud, the health center’s internal medicine practice dedicated to advancing the health and well-being of the Hispanic community, also will expand to the South Side. Valley Health Partners at West Lincoln Street demonstrates the health center’s commitment to extending its mission to the Easton community.
In just three years since embarking on its community health center journey, Valley Health Partners has achieved remarkable progress by expanding various areas of the health center. The demand for services in the community continues to grow, and VHP at West Lincoln Street will help meet that demand more effectively.
With redevelopment assistance capital-funding support from the Governor’s Budget Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a public-private partnership between the City of Easton and Stewart Silk Mill Redevelopment Partners, L.P. soon will complete Phase II of the Mill at Easton redevelopment project. The phase includes the health center’s new facilities, along with a recently opened Dollar General “DG Marketplace” store offering a full line of groceries, aimed at addressing the food scarcity issue. Valley Health Partners’ satellite location will sit adjacent to the grocer.
While specific timelines are still being finalized, a soft opening for VHP at West Lincoln Street is targeted for fall 2024.
