The 29 Year History of Reach Out

It all began with an idea. In 1993, Ted Wymyslo, M.D., Cheryl Maurana, Ph.D., and Syed Ahmed, M.D., met to discuss how we could develop a program to help the uninsured and underserved population of Dayton using volunteers. Wright State University School of Medicine, Montgomery County Medical Society, and the Public Health Department of Dayton and Montgomery County came together to build a consensus and write a major grant in response to a request from the Robert Wood Johnson foundation.

In 1994, we became one of the grant recipients from the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. We also become, in the same year, a 501c (3) organization, developed a board of directors and two committees to implement our objectives. By March 1995, we started seeing patients in our clinic long before any other Reach Out grantee started doing the same. With the collaboration of Wright State University, we did a major research project to define the health care needs of the uninsured/underserved and their barriers to health care.

Collaboration has been the cornerstone of our success. All of this has been possible because we believe that our country needs to help the uninsured and underserved and trust that we can address this issue. We do not believe that volunteerism alone will serve the serious issues of health care access, but it definitely can and does help the ailing system.

During the COVID 19 pandemic our clinic was impacted as were many charitable organizations. This video was recorded in 2017 prior to COVID and impact it had on our organization. Our goal is to once again be at this historic level of providing healthcare to the underserved of Montgomery County and with your help we are reaching these goals. As you give in your community consider partnering with us in reaching the most vulnerable in our community.

Please take a few minutes and watch our video recorded in 2017.

Thank you,

John Campbell, Executive Director