MEDIA RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kimberly Jones 323-541-1600

HUNDREDS ATTEND OPENING OF DR. LOUIS FRAYSER COMMUNITY CLINIC

Los Angeles, California – Over 250 nonprofit leaders, community residents and elected officials packed the Ahmanson auditorium of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center to celebrate the grand opening of the Dr. Louis Frayser Community Clinic and the Child and Family Resource and Development Center. Included in the standing-room only crowd was Marsha McCready, Senior Program Director of First 5 LA (which funded the purchase of the building as part of a $4.5 million School Readiness project grant awarded to St. John’s); Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas; Mindy Jones, Program Director of the Ahmanson Foundation (which funded the building renovation); and Dr. Martin Savage, former Medical Director for Martin Luther King Hospital and Charles Drew Medical Center.

Dr. Frayser, a leading African American physician in Los Angeles moved the crowd to tears when he thanked St. John’s for naming the building in his honor. “This is the most important and beautiful day in my entire life,” said the 78-year old health care activist. “We must thank St. John’s CEO, Mr. Jim Mangia, for his tenacity, his vision and his brilliance in making this project a reality. It has been a privilege to have worked under his vision.”

Assemblyman Mark Ridley-Thomas presented Dr. Frayser and Mr. Mangia with

certificates of special recognition from the State of California and thanked them for their leadership in bringing vitally-needed services to one of the poorest areas in the state of California. Assemblyman Ridley-Thomas pledged his support for the expanded facility that St. John’s will open across the street from the Dr. Frayser Community Clinic which will add 40,000 square feet of additional services and developmental programs for the south central community. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry received the clinic’s Spirit of Health award for her help in securing building and operating permits and clearances for the initial 20,000 square foot project’s development. The South Central Children’s Choir, sang a valentine to Dr. Frayser.

In 2004, St. John’s provided those services to over 57,000 patients at four sites in downtown, south central and east Los Angeles. In addition to the opening of the Dr. Louis Frayser clinic, St. John’s will open a school-based health center in the Hyde Park section of South Los Angeles this spring. The Dr. Louis Frayser Community Clinic, which received federally qualified health center (FQHC) status and grant funding in December, will provide medical, dental and mental health services to 30,000 patients each year. The First 5-funded School Readiness project will also provide pre-school and day care services; child and family development services; parenting, job training and ESL classes; literacy and lap read programs; a community theater and a children’s library; and social service linkages for families in need.