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Dollar Bank, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh and has served Ohio customers for 40 years, has pledged $600,000 over the next five years to help MetroHealth provide low-cost internet access to up to 1,000 low and moderate-income households in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood. The partnership will support MetroHealth’s efforts to bring digital resources to that neighborhood.
In his speech at the 2019 MetroHealth Annual Stakeholders Meeting, Dr. Akram Boutros discussed the importance of being digitally connected in today’s world and the lack of internet availability in the neighborhoods surrounding MetroHealth. As a result, Dr. Boutros committed to collaborating with partners to provide low-cost internet for those households. MetroHealth’s Institute for H.O.P.E.™ is coordinating these efforts.
Increased access, especially during the current COVID-19 pandemic, is crucial for social connection, accessing social service resources, health care portals, academics and college and job applications.
“Dollar Bank is honored to be a community partner with MetroHealth, providing families with much needed access to digital communication and resources, especially during these unprecedented times,” said Dollar Bank president and CEO Jim McQuade. “This project enables us to provide continued support for community reinvestment, economic development, and education in the metro Cleveland region. At Dollar Bank, we believe that together with our community partners, we can bring positive and systemic change in the neighborhoods we serve.”
The first households in the neighborhood began receiving subsidized internet access in April. By early June, internet service will become available to residents in the Scranton Castle senior apartment complex off West 25th Street – part of the Cuyahoga Housing Metropolitan Authority (CMHA). The project aims to connect 300 individuals and households with internet access within the first year.
Other partners in this effort include DigitalC, AT&T, Computers Assisting People, Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cuyahoga Community College, Esperanza, MCPc, Metro West Community Development Organization and US Communications and Electric Inc.
The Dollar Bank gift is one of the largest of MetroHealth’s philanthropic campaign, “For All of Us,” launched publicly in 2018. The campaign is more than halfway toward its goal of raising a minimum of $100 million by 2023 for core aspects of MetroHealth’s transformation. The transformation not only includes the construction of a new hospital on the health system’s main campus, but also the creation of opportunities for community wellness and economic development.
April 20, 2020
Fifteen thousand full-face shields are being shipped to MetroHealth to help protect its front-line caregivers during the COVID-19 health crisis. The donation is from Cleveland-based Lubrizol Corporation, which collaborated with Nike to make the equipment available to health systems in several U.S. cities.
“These face shields will allow us to treat patients while keeping our front-line medical providers safe,” said MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros, MD, FACHE. “We appreciate this generous donation. It’s another example of the community coming together to care for each other.”
To support Nike’s efforts to develop and donate the equipment to hospitals, Lubrizol donated ESTANE® thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) polymers, an important element in the full-face shields. The Lubrizol team evaluated materials, provided insights to optimize performance and re-orchestrated its production and supply chain to produce and donate the necessary material to Nike as part of this effort. With Lubrizol’s support, Nike has shipped the full-face shields to MetroHealth, to health systems in Oregon, where Nike is headquartered; Cleveland, where Lubrizol’s world headquarters sit; and several other cities. Earlier this month, Lubrizol announced a $2 million donation commitment to support COVID-19 needs globally.
In early March, shortly after the World Health Organization designated COVID-19 as a pandemic, Miguel Zubizarreta contacted MetroHealth President and CEO Akram Boutros, MD, FACHE to find out what the health system needed.
Zubizarreta, former executive vice president and chief technology officer at Hyland Software, told Boutros that he wanted to help in any way he could, and subsequently made a gift of $1 million to MetroHealth.
A Bay Village entrepreneur, Zubizarreta and his wife, Denise, are the forces behind the Zubizarreta House, which opened in 2017. The 7,000-square-foot house next to the MetroHealth Old Brooklyn Health Center (OBC) is a fully accessible facility that is a second home for people with spinal cord injuries who travel to MetroHealth for research-related treatment and evaluation. A series of gifts totaling $1.6 million provided the funding needed for the design, construction and furnishing of the house.
In support of the new hospital project, the Transformation, MetroHealth has launched a philanthropic campaign: For All of Us. The campaign will support community programs, education and research, and development of expanded campus green space.
Our goal is to raise a minimum of $100 million in philanthropic contributions for our transformation. We hope you will join us.
Contact us at 216-778-5665.
Learn more about fundraising events as well as tax-deductible options available for making a charitable gift to MetroHealth.
