Borrego Sun - Since 1949

The Borrego Valley Endowment Fund (BVEF) announced a $58,000 grant to DAP Health, the new owner of the Borrego Medical Clinic.

The grant is restricted to serve the Borrego community and will be used for conducting a community health survey of Borrego Springs and for renovations of the Borrego Medical Clinic.

“For the first time in nearly a decade, BVEF believes the management of the Borrego Medical Clinic aligns with the goals and intentions of BVEF’s founding donors to provide quality healthcare for Borrego Springs,” said BVEF President, David Garmon, adding, “Honoring and fulfilling the intent of our donors is a bedrock principal of the Endowment Fund.”

Following DAP Health’s August 2023 acquisition of the assets of the Borrego Community Health Foundation, which included the Borrego Medical Clinic, members of the BVEF board began discussions with the CEO of DAP Health, David Brinkman. These discussions focused on providing the highest quality healthcare to the residents of the Borrego Valley and on supporting DAP Health in its efforts to revitalize the Borrego Medical Clinic.

Garmon said, “We are pleased to support DAP Health in its mission to revitalize the Borrego Medical Clinic. Under the new leadership of DAP Health, we believe the Borrego Medical Clinic will become an exemplary provider of healthcare to every segment of our community. DAP Health has been a leader in providing quality healthcare in the Palm Springs region for 40 years, and we are delighted to have DAP Health as a partner in serving Borrego’s healthcare needs.”

“All of us at DAP Health are so thankful to BVEF and President Dr. David Garmon, not only for this generous gift, but for entrusting us with the staff and patients of the Borrego Medical Clinic,” said DAP Health CEO, David Brinkman.

“Our community health survey and strategic planning process – through which we will identify the most promising pathways to increasing health care access, improving health outcomes, and achieving health equity in each of the communities we serve – will help us meet the needs of individuals and families in Borrego Springs, and our new partnership with BVEF will enable us to continue our renovation of the physical facility so that we can elevate the entire patient experience at the Borrego Medical Clinic.”

DAP Health, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024, is an internationally renowned humanitarian health care organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC) whose goal is to protect and expand health care access for all people – especially the disenfranchised – regardless of who or where they are, their health status, or whether they have health insurance.

In 2023, DAP Health made a successful bid to acquire the Borrego Health system, enabling its 950 employees to continue serving more than 85,000 patients of all populations, genders, and ages – from newborns to seniors – at a total of 25 Southern California clinics located within 240 rural and urban zip codes from the Coachella Valley to the San Diego coast.

The BVEF’s mission is to harness the power of philanthropy to create enduring, community-wide benefits for the Borrego region. Supporting the Borrego Medical Clinic is one example of how the BVEF makes Borrego Springs a better community.

If you would like to support the BVEF in achieving its mission by donating to important projects like this, or others that may be of special interest to you, please contact Jim Dion at jdionbvef@gmail.com or visit http://www.bvefund.org.