Treasure Coast Community Health (TCCH) serves 25,000 patients with primary medical, dental, behavioral and pharmaceutical care at eight locations. As the only Federally Qualified Health Center in Indian River County, no one is turned away – we believe in Healthcare For All, accepting most insurances and the uninsured. Staff and volunteers are deeply committed to improving the health of the community. This intensified on day one of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Seventy-five volunteers gave their time scheduling appointments, answering questions and quelling fears in the call center. At vaccination sites, they assisted with paperwork and traffic, verified I.D.s and observed people after the shot. Their service allowed TCCH professional staff to administer vaccines while other staff continued aiding patients in the health centers.

While volunteers filled new responsibilities, paid staff took on a tremendous amount of extra work to make COVID-19 testing and vaccination events possible. Many worked 60-70 hours in normal 40-hour shifts. They gave time setting up and tearing down events. Managers oversaw health centers via phone and they sacrificed family time.

The hard work paid off. To date, 15,000 people received 23,500 vaccines through TCCH.

Director of Operations Steve Hellyer said if he had to go through this experience again, he would go with the exact same team. “I want warriors. Everybody wants to be a warrior until it’s time to do warrior stuff and then they get scared. The warriors are the ones I want to have my back.” www.tcchinc.org