Grantee: HealthPoint
Timeframe: July 2024 – June 2027 | Amount: $600,000
- Year 1: July 2024 – June 2025 | Amount: $200,000
- Year 2: July 2025 – June 2026 | Amount: $200,000
- Year 3: July 2026 – June 2027 | Amount: $200,000
This project improves access to essential health care for uninsured and vulnerable migrants in South King County through outreach, care navigation, health education, and coverage of visit costs that remove financial barriers and build trust.
In Year 2, the project expanded beyond asylum seekers to include all vulnerable migrants. HealthPoint also added a second full-time Outreach Care Navigator, whose Spanish language skills strengthened language access and helped build authentic relationships within migrant communities.
Nearly 65% of health care visits occurred at HealthPoint’s Tukwila clinic, with additional visits provided at SeaTac and other sites. Appointments include medical, dental, behavioral health, laboratory services, and pharmacy. These visits are stabilizing acute conditions, treating chronic conditions, relieving urgent dental pain, and addressing mental health challenges, with costs covered by PHPDA grant funding. For many patients, this support makes the difference between receiving care and going without.
The project also implemented hybrid and in-person educational workshops on women’s health, dental care in the U.S., school system navigation, and community health resources. Workshops were interpreted in French, Lingala, Portuguese, and Spanish to ensure meaningful access. The hybrid model responded to community hesitancy around large in-person gatherings and allowed participants to join from shelters and community locations across South King County. Trust continues to deepen, with participants asking questions, suggesting topics, and engaging both virtually and in person.
HealthPoint strengthened the project in Year 2 by improving clinic workflows, enrolling uninsured children and eligible adults in insurance when possible, resolving billing barriers, coordinating specialty care, and connecting patients to external resources such as King County’s Breast, Cervical, and Colon Health Program (BCCHP) and Project Access Northwest. HealthPoint also refined workflows following Epic implementation challenges and laboratory billing issues, helping ensure uninsured patients are protected from unintended bills.
Year 3 will focus on sustaining momentum, strengthening systems, and positioning the project for long-term continuation. HealthPoint does not propose expanding beyond the successful Year 2 model. Instead, the project will maintain two Outreach Care Navigators, sustain hybrid and in-person educational workshops, continue covering uninsured visits through PHPDA funding, strengthen referral pathways to insurance enrollment and external safety net programs, and develop sustainability pathways beyond the grant period.
HealthPoint will also prioritize enrolling eligible children and adults in Apple Health, expanding connections to BCCHP, specialty care, and other resources, strengthening partnerships with community-based organizations, and maintaining language access and culturally responsive engagement.
The political climate continues to create fear and instability for migrants in South King County. Federal policy shifts and reduced refugee support systems have left many migrants without formal case management support. This project helps fill that gap by providing consistent, trusted health care navigation embedded in community settings.
ABOUT OUR GRANTEE
HealthPoint
“HealthPoint is a community-based, community-supported, and community-governed network of non-profit health centers that use evidence-based care and are dedicated to providing expert, high-quality care to all who need it, regardless of circumstances.
Our mission is to strengthen communities and improve people’s health by delivering quality health care services using evidence-based care, breaking down barriers, and providing access to all.”
