New School-Based Health, Wellness Center Opens At NPS Family Center

NORWALK, CT — State and local officials gathered this week to celebrate the opening of the Norwalk Community Health Center’s new school-based health and wellness center at the Norwalk Public Schools Family Center.

Superintendent Alexandra Estrella welcomed community and state leaders to the ribbon cutting event held Monday morning at the family center, located at 1 Park Street.

Those in attendance included Mayor Harry Rilling, Congressman Jim Himes, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff and Norwalk Community Health Center CEO Kenneth Waller among other state representatives and local leaders.

“I’m so excited after several months and years of talking about a dream, a vision,” Estrella said, “creating a space for our families and children that would allow healthcare service for not only our children, but also their families, and seeing today come to life and having all of you here to celebrate this is something very dear to my heart.”

The third school-based health center operated in partnership with Norwalk Public Schools, NCHC’s newest facility will be the first to provide care to students, their families and NPS staff members, according to additional press materials provided by the district and Himes.

NCHC’s nationally recognized health center will partner with the district’s family center, which also houses the Norwalk Next Steps program, to provide school-based health and wellness services for their students and families.

NCHC will also work together with families and their family pediatricians to keep Norwalk students healthy and in school, according to the district.

“We are truly fortunate to have partnerships like these in Norwalk where we can have vital healthcare services across our district, but also here at the family center,” Estrella said. “What’s most exciting about this clinic is its expanded mission. As I said earlier, providing a place not just for our students to seek necessary healthcare, but also a resource for their family.”

Estrella also noted the district first opened the family center three years ago with a vision to create a one-stop shop for the district’s families to receive all the services they need, both school-related and extended to city services.

“Today, we are thrilled to add a comprehensive healthcare service for the whole family to that list of things we already have at our family center,” Estrella said.

Rilling commented that the new wellness center was “really amazing” and will serve a good purpose for young community members and their families.

“We know how important it is for not only the young people in our community,” Rilling said, “but the families that they rely on to have good health and be taken care of and get the things that perhaps we take for granted, that we don’t realize a lot of people don’t have the same benefits that we have.”

He also noted this was another example of how Norwalk, in his opinion, seems to “lead the pack” in a lot of things.

“I think there’s wonderful partnerships here in the city of Norwalk that other communities can look at and say ‘we’d like to replicate that, we’d like to be like Norwalk,’ and it’s because of the forward thinking and vision that Dr. Estella and others have that have these partnerships that work so well together,” Rilling said. “So congratulations on this, I know that this is going to serve the community, serve our young children, serve their families in a way that will certainly be something that will be remarkable.”

Waller celebrated the opening of the wellness center as “a breakthrough moment for Norwalk Public Schools and the Norwalk Community Health Center,” and as a new chapter in NCHC’s story of bringing compassionate care to its patient community.

“The vision here today is really to bring comprehensive primary care to our people that is safe, timely and driven with quality,” Waller said. “It would also include mental health services. Most importantly, we will continue to innovate and design clinical programming to meet the needs of our children and our families. We will also strengthen our partnerships with our community-based members to make sure all additional care gaps are covered.”

Himes noted the opening was incredibly gratifying because “Norwalk, probably more than any other city in the state, is on the move…and that’s great. It’s great for the taxpayers, it’s great for the economic vibrancy, it’s great for jobs.”

Duff thanked Estrella for her vision for the wellness center, which he noted the pair had discussed a number of years ago.

“It’s one thing to have the vision,” Duff said, “it’s another to be able to actually put it into practice.”

Duff highlighted why he thought ensuring families in the district have access to the healthcare services they need is important.

“We see that if kids have access to healthcare and they have access to mental healthcare, they will be better students…but it also means that parents need to have access,” Duff said, “because if the parents have access that means then the kids will have access, because then the parents know that the kids can have the access.”

He also praised the partnerships that made the opening of the new wellness center possible.

“This is how government should work, and this is why elections matter, this is why choices matter,” Duff said, “because you have a federal delegation that is committed to healthcare, you have the state delegation that is committed to healthcare, you have local delegation, our superintendent, others who are all working together for the betterment of our community, and putting all those pieces together means we get to do things like this today.”