Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center recently celebrated the groundbreaking of a new pediatric wing, the grand opening of Samuel U. Rodgers Place, and the Propeller Building, all located at the Samuel U. Rodgers Healthy Living Campus. “The mixed-income housing at Sam Rodgers Place features beautiful construction, new appliances, and spacious apartments and townhomes,” said Sam Rodgers Health Center CEO Bob Theis. He added the Propeller Building is home to the Jim Nunnelly Community Room, a 3,000-square-foot space dedicated to educating the community on health care, relationships, mentoring, along with an event space, among other components. This calls it a fitting tribute to Nunnelly’s legacy as a consummate health care advocate, and one who worked alongside Dr. Rodgers to increase access to quality care.

Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Quinton Lucas said health care, housing, transportation – all the things that should be happening in Kansas City. “These things are being done right and in this neighborhood. We are making sure people have all the things they deserve,” he said. “Outstanding housing opportunities, office space, health care opportunities, the arts, so much that says to people, ‘We matter.’”

The 40-room, 30,000-square-foot pediatric wing will house WIC, behavioral health, and dental, including hygienists and three dental chairs, where children will receive dental screenings and referrals to Rodgers’ dental clinic. The WIC program will provide food vouchers, nutritional education, and even lactation consulting for breastfeeding mothers, among other services. To enhance the accessibility of these services, the pediatric wing is slated to create 37 new jobs – and provide services to 4,500 children per year.

“The new pediatric wing will nearly double the medical capacity of our current downtown location, offering comprehensive medical, dental, and integrated behavioral health services for children,” Theis said. “WIC services will be located at the entrance of the new pediatric wing, promoting healthy lifestyles by connecting participants to nutritional support and primary care services.” The pediatric wing will also support Sam Rodgers’ nurse residency program, the first program of its kind in any Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Missouri. Nursing residents will be proximate to pediatric care, which supports hands-on, practical application.

Plans for the pediatric wing, Sam Rodgers Place, and Propeller Building began 14 years ago. In 2015, the Housing Authority of Kansas City, the City of KCMO, Brinshore Development, United Way of Greater KC, Sam Rodgers, and Northeast community groups joined forces to obtain a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Paseo Gateway District. Grant funds plus matching local investment resulted in this private-public partnership.

“We met, we discussed, we collaborated, we planned, we applied for funding – most importantly, we implemented – we did it,” said Edwin Lowndes, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Kansas City. “Now, after 14 years of community action, we have over 300 units of housing available to members of our community and city.

Lowndes added that for every dollar of the Choice Grant, three more dollars of investment went into the program; investment from private equity, mortgage funding, state and local funding supported this initiative.

“People may not realize how significant this is because it’s a public-private effort and it works,” said Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, “and the government is supposed to work. This is a day the whole community really ought to celebrate. Because this is quite a feat that has been achieved because neighborhood grants are difficult to get. There are cities all over the United States right now that would love to have the opportunity to sit in a room like this and celebrate what will continue to happen in this neighborhood. The number one domestic issue in this country is the need for more affordable housing.”

“Dr. Rodgers believed access to housing, health care, and education were essential to a strong community,” Theis said. “With 100% participation from our Board of Directors contributing personally to the pediatric wing, we are proud to offer all of these at the Sam Rodgers Healthy Living Campus.”

Rita Rodgers-Stanley, M.D., the youngest child of Dr. Rodgers, said he would have been thrilled. “I have one living sibling, Rosalyn, and we witnessed Dr. Rodgers in a way that only a child could,” she said. “But little did we know that we were living with a legacy, that we were living with a man who would leave an imprint on this world and on the future.”

Rita Rodgers-Stanley, M.D

Rodgers-Stanley said her dad came from a legacy that started with a very godly grandfather who founded a church. “That legacy extended to Dr. Rodgers’ father, who was also a physician in segregated South,” she said. “I don’t know how he did it. In the early 1900s, he had a practice, he had a pharmacy, and he served a community to which most of whom couldn’t pay. I remember times we were there in the summer and there would be eggs and chickens on the front porch as a form of payment.”

She said Dr. Rodgers intended to go back to Alabama and practice with his father but was unable to get credentialing privileges at the hospital. “As painful as that was for my grandfather and father, it literally launched him into that path that we now are witnessing still,” she said. “Today’s celebration is an extension of that legacy into the future by expanding access to housing and health services for families, including children who need care the most. We are breaking ground on a new pediatric wing that will serve thousands of children. That’s our beginning; that’s how we start; that’s what determines what a community ultimately becomes.”

Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center has been designated as a Silver Quality Leader by the Health Resources and Services Administration, placing it in the top 11-20% of FQHCs for quality care. Rodgers-Stanley said thanks to so many; her father’s legacy, which started more than 55 years ago, continues to make an indelible impact.

To help support this long legacy of high-quality, compassionate, and affordable care, more donations are needed. To donate, visit https://raisedonors.com/sam-rodgers-health/capital-campaign.

Additional funding partners include the Mabee Foundation, Victor E. Speas Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; Arvin Gottlieb Charitable Foundation; William T. Kemper Foundation – Commerce Bank Trustee; Samuel U. Rodgers Board of Directors; New Markets Tax Credits from Central Bank of Kansas City, Wells Fargo; Hall Family Foundation; Sunderland Foundation; H & R Block Foundation; Jack F. and Glenna Wiley Foundation; The Ann and Gary Dickinson Family Charitable Foundation; Mr. Steve Sweet; and the State of Missouri.

For more information, visit samrodgers.org/ways-to-give.