GAINESVILLE, FL (352today.com) – The UF Mobile Outreach Clinic (UFMOC) will be establishing a new mobile clinic thanks to a massive $1.2 million grant.

The nonprofit Direct Relief and its Fund for Health Equity has recently given a grant to UFMOC.

The clinic says it plans to use the money to fund a new mobile clinic that will provide maternal health care.

UFMOC says it expects the clinic to be operational this fall. The clinic says the new clinic will provide “crucial health services to underserved communities in Alachua and surrounding counties, especially in rural areas, focused on mothers and their families.”

The new mobile clinic is a collaboration between the UFMOC and the UF College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The clinic says the grant has been made possible thanks to the CVS Health Foundation.

“Direct Relief and their donors are just amazing,” said Kim Lynch, administrative director of the UFMOC. “We are so grateful for their continuing generosity and support, which makes our work possible. As we are 90% grant funded, it is so important to have partners who allow us to bring health care out to those without health insurance in the communities where they live.”

UFMOC says the 38-foot vehicle will feature two exam rooms, a waiting area, lab space, and a wheelchair lift. They say it will also help pay staff, including clinicians and community health workers.

According to Adetola Louis-Jacques, M.D., the maternal mobile outreach clinic’s medical director, the million-dollar grant will also help fund birth, postpartum, and lactation training and counseling, in addition to supporting community listening sessions.

“By meeting families where they are and creating with the community pregnancy programs that address their medical care and social determinants of health, we hope to reduce maternal child health disparities in the communities we serve and help families thrive,” said Louis-Jacques.

This isn’t the first time Direct Relief has provided the clinic with a financial grant. The humanitarian agency based in Santa Barbara, CA, provided the clinic with a $250,000 grant back in 2022 that went toward adding a mobile unit with an exam room.