Celebrating Endings

Before we sail into 2023, we look back at the highlights of 2022.

It’s been said that we should celebrate endings, for they precede new beginnings. In this new year as we are forming our resolutions for 2023, we also look to the stories and events of 2022 that helped us grow as an organization, spread our wings and expand our services.

Healthy eating on the go. Nutrition has always been part of The Floating Hospital’s education tool kit and with our new Chef Maria Loi and Loukoumi Make a Difference Foundation Teaching Kitchen, we are building great programming to help families eat healthy no matter where they live. The kitchen hosts hands-on demonstrations of food preparation and taste tests for the whole family. “Kids are important because that’s the age when they develop eating habits:  The healthier they eat as children, the more likely they’ll maintain that as adults,” says Dr. Meghan Miller, director of health education.

Health equity is in our DNA. The pandemic revealed the scale of health inequities suffered by communities of color and opened up numerous conversations about how The Floating Hospital works to close these gaps with its long-time focus on medically underserved New Yorkers. The conditions of poverty, “created the most vulnerable class of Covid victims and sufferers. They helped create a disparate infection rate and severity rate among Covid patients,” said Sean T. Granahan, president and general counsel for the clinic. “Health education and helping families outside of the normal healthcare model is critical to dealing with public health issues like the pandemic.”

Diversity is also in our DNA. Recognizing our organization for its long-time commitment to serving a diversity of New Yorkers, Crain’s New York named The Floating Hospital a 2022 “Diversity and Inclusion Champion” for a medium-sized organization. In addition to our history of inclusive patient care, we were cited for our track record of diverse hiring, training, promoting and retention; our visible leadership of color on staff and on the board of directors; and our initiatives to bolster culturally sensitive internal programming for staff.

Local Hero. Not to toot our horn too much, but we were thrilled when we were featured in a Good Day New York’s “Hero of the Day” segment on Jan. 18, for our Good Health Shuttle, the shelter-to-clinic transport service that ensures families can make it to the doctor. The shuttle received grant support from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation and the Pfizer Foundation in 2022, to help us promote healthcare equities for medically underserved populations.

Clockwise: Director of Behavioral Health, Igda Martinez (L) and featured speaker, Tameka Cooke (R) at the 2022 Summer of Love Benefit; three young patients enjoy the meal they made themselves in our Maria Loi and Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation Teaching Kitchen; Director of Community Outreach, Cynthia Davis (L), and Executive Vice President of Finance, Gloria Jackson (center), accept the Crain's Diversity and Inclusion Champion award on behalf of The Floating Hospital; a Good Health Shuttle driver welcomes a family to the clinic ; our health education team, Camp Rise Up counselors in training and board chair, Dominick DeLorenzo, learned pickleball from the pros at the spring 2002 Franklin New York City Open Tournament.

Clockwise: Director of Behavioral Health, Igda Martinez (L) and featured speaker, Tameka Cooke (R) at the 2022 Summer of Love Benefit; three young patients enjoy the meal they made themselves in our Maria Loi and Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation Teaching Kitchen; Director of Community Outreach, Cynthia Davis (L), and Executive Vice President of Finance, Gloria Jackson (center), accept the Crain’s Diversity and Inclusion Champion award on behalf of The Floating Hospital; a Good Health Shuttle driver welcomes a family to the clinic ; our health education team, Camp Rise Up counselors in training and board chair, Dominick DeLorenzo, learned pickleball from the pros at the spring 2002 Franklin New York City Open Tournament.

A Summer of Love. After an absence of two years during the coronavirus pandemic, our Summer Gala fundraising event returned. We celebrated that with a 1960-inspired theme harkening back to that famous Summer of Love but also to reinforce our love of what we do: helping patients like Tameka Cooke and her daughter restart their lives after their challenging journey through homelessness. Tameka’s story is powerful: read it here. The fundraiser supported our new life-skills program, inspired by women like Tameka who shared their stories with us.

We were in a pickle! Jumping on the hot trend of 2022, The Floating Hospital took to the courts with the help of InPickleball magazine founder and TFH adviser Richard Porter, and the Association of Professional Pickleball. Porter saw the opportunity for TFH health educators to learn the sport and pass it on to those attending our Camp Rise Up summer camp for homeless youth. Calling it “the accessible cousin to tennis,” with minimal equipment requirements and a “play anywhere” sensibility, Porter helped set the stage—or, in this case, court—for future fun while minimizing the barriers to entry.

This post featured in our monthly newsletter from January/February 2023.

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The Floating Hospital provides high-quality healthcare to anyone who needs it regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, immigration or insurance status, or the ability to pay. By providing unrestricted medical care in tandem with health education and social support to vulnerable New York City families, The Floating Hospital aims to ensure those most in need have the ability to thrive, not just survive.

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