Mercy Care

Last night, our Street Medicine Team was honored at Atlanta Business Chronicle's Health Care Champion Awards ceremony at Bishop Station for their outreach work in bringing HIV education, screening and treatment to those experiencing homelessness in Atlanta. Six members of the 11-person team were on hand to accept the award for Community Outreach Champion of the year. Congratulations to the entire team for recognition of this important work. To read the full story, please visit https://lnkd.in/eG-VukFF

Shirley Franklin, Atlanta’s first female mayor for two terms (2002-2010), was also the first Black woman to lead a major Southern city. Ms. Franklin was also one of the first recipients of Mercy Care’s Mercy Moves Through Me Award. She received that recognition alongside the late U.S. Representative John Lewis for their ongoing efforts to address the needs and rights of the homeless. The 2025 Mercy Moves Through Me Award will be announced in March, who will be this year's recipient? Stay tuned...

At a time in history when hospitals were not common in the South, six Sisters of Mercy traveled from Savannah to open a community hospital in Atlanta. With the help of the local Catholic church, they purchased an old house to be converted into "Atlanta Hospital," which opened its doors on April 21, 1880. While the buildings and locations have changed throughout the years, Mercy Care has continued its mission of serving Atlanta's poor and vulnerable just as the Sisters of Mercy first intended 145 years ago.

Do you know a nurse or CMA who's looking for a job? Tell them about Walk-In Wednesday tomorrow and next Wednesday, March 5th at our Chamblee clinic from 11am-1pm. They can meet the team and have an interview, same day! Please see the flyer for all the details.

We are hiring!

We are so pleased to have provided some insights about the challenges of experiencing homelessness in Atlanta during the winter months in Atlanta Magazine's recent article. To read the full article, please click here: https://loom.ly/8Tsldi8

This week in Black History Month we are spotlighting Dr. Georgia Rooks Dwelle, who was the first Spelman College Alumna to attend medical school at Meharry Medical College where she studied obstetrics and pediatrics. She was one of only three Black women physicians in Georgia when she moved to Atlanta. After witnessing the terrible conditions in which Atlanta’s poorest Black residents lived, she was inspired to establish the Dwelle Infirmary in 1920 at 14 Boulevard Ave. It was the state’s first general hospital and first “lying in” obstetrics hospital for African Americans. She remained active in a number of different medical associations until her death in 1977.

In honor of Black History Month, we’re spotlighting influential Black persons in medicine each week. Dr. Eliza Ann Grier was an emancipated slave who fulfilled her dream of becoming a doctor. To pay for her medical education, she alternated every year of her studies with a year of picking cotton; it took her seven years to complete her degree! After graduating from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, she returned to her hometown of Atlanta in 1898 where she became the first African American woman licensed to practice medicine in Fulton County, Georgia. With grit and dogged determination, Dr. Grier was an early pioneer for Black women physicians in the South.

We are so pleased to have been included in @AtlantaMagazine's 2025 Top 500 List! Thank you for shining a light on our important work and that of our colleagues. Collectively, we are working towards making Atlanta healthier! Here's a link to the full Healthcare list: https://loom.ly/K1QeZZI #AtlantaGa #healthcare #mercycare #hopeinhealing

Don't let the warm temperatures fool you, we still have another month of potentially cold weather ahead. That means we are still collecting blankets, coats, hoodies, hats, gloves, and scarves for our unhomed clients. Donation boxes are located at the Decatur Street and Chamblee clinics. If you'd like to contribute to our Amazon wishlist, here is the link: https://loom.ly/GhPA-CA. Thank you!