Pender Alliance for Teen Health (PATH) learned Friday that it has been awarded a grant of nearly $500,000 to make school-based health centers at three Pender County schools a reality over the next two years.

The funds, dispersed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, are part of the Affordable Care Act. 

The act provides $200 million in funding from fiscal years 2010-13 for the School-Based Health Center Capital Program.

“We submitted our proposal in July, and then waited and waited,” said Beth Gaglione, PATH’s executive director. “This is just huge for us, an organization that does not even have one school-based health center yet.”

Formally established in 2009, PATH got startup funds from the Cape Fear Memorial Foundation in 2010. It has spent two years doing a county needs assessment and preparing to open its first center, to be located at West Pender Middle School. The center is expected to open in late winter 2013, funded primarily by state funds it received earlier this year. Gaglione said that the HRSA grant will enable the center to expand its services to more people.

“We’ve developed a model [for the center] that fits Pender County,” Gaglione said.

Gaglione said the HRSA grant would accelerate establishment of two more centers: one at Pender High School and one at Burgaw Middle School. “We can also begin talking about a fourth location,” she added.

Word of the PATH grant was part of an announcement from Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) on Friday. She announced more than $1.7 million in HRSA funding for five centers in North Carolina. Other grants will go to school-based health centers in Newton Grove, Durham, Carrboro and Bakersville.

“School-based health centers are an important resource for keeping our children healthy, and I am pleased that this grant funding will directly benefit students in North Carolina,” Hagan said in a release.   

According to the HRSA, school-based health centers enable children with acute or chronic illnesses to attend school and improve the overall health and wellness of all children through health screenings, health promotion and disease prevention activities. Typically, a school-based clinic provides a combination of primary care, mental health care, substance abuse counseling, case management, dental health, nutrition education, health education and health promotion activities – all with parental consent.