Months after a ribbon-cutting at the new Whitman-Walker Max Robinson Center in D.C.’s Ward 8, the medical facility — and the community it serves — got more good news: the approval of $22.5 million in federal funding.
The money, which comes from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Capital Projects Fund, will fund 40 exam and consultation rooms, eight dental suites, and 23 group and psychotherapy rooms that will provide expanded telemedicine services.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the funding Monday at the facility, which provides health care services to the Ward 8 community with a long-running focus on LGBTQ+ health and HIV care and prevention. Bowser said the investment would spur more investment and “create over 100 new jobs, provide training opportunities for our residents and create a pipeline of health care talent — which we know we need.”
Bowser thanked her team and the District’s federal partners as well as President Joe Biden, saying he has “staked a lot of his tenure on making sure that federal dollars are getting directly to communities who know how to put them to work, and put them to work quickly.”
The latest federal funding will also help support the construction of a new research facility on the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus in Ward 8.
“I want to underscore what this looks like in action,” said Joseph Wender, representing the CPF, to the crowd at the center Monday. “There’s going to be greater capacity for telehealth and in-person visits, accepting an estimated 10,000 new patients by 2025.”
That’s in addition to the 5,000 that are currently served, Wender said.
Along with health care, the Max Robinson Center provides workforce training, educational programs and public access to computers and high-speed internet.
“We couldn’t be more thrilled,” Cindy Lewin, interim CEO of the center, said of the multimillion dollar investment, further explaining that it will allow for the expansion of research and response into health disparities in the community.
