North Shore Community Health has three full-time family practice sites: Salem Family Health Center, Peabody Family Health Center, and Gloucester Family Health. NSCH has two School-Based Health and Behavioral Health Centers: Salem High School Teen Health Center, Peabody Veterans War Memorial High School Teen Health Center and four behavioral health only sites in the following Salem schools: Collins Middle School, Bates Elementary School, Bentley Academy Charter School, and Horace Mann Laboratory School.

Each site delivers high quality, culturally competent, comprehensive primary care medical, dental and behavioral health services. NSCH also offers supportive services such as health education, translation, health insurance eligibility and enrollment assistance, and transportation that promote access to health care.

We take our responsibility to ourselves, each other, and the NSCH Community very seriously. We understand our individual roles, and positions of power with respect to how others perceive our roles and actions. We hold ourselves accountable when we make mistakesacknowledging the error, owning it, taking corrective actions, and moving forward. We follow through on what we commitor resolve to do.

Integrity is the foundation of healthy relationships. We are committed to the highest ethical standards: honesty, fairness, respectfulness, and trustworthiness. We are honorable and respectful in dealings with others and we strive to deal honestly, fairly and in a respectful, ethical and trustworthy manner when in agreement or disagreement.

Empathy is a deep appreciation for anothers situation and point of view, which is the basis for the golden rule and our intrinsic sense of justice. We strive to bring empathy into our interactions with each other and with our patients.

We see courage as the strength of character to stand up for our convictions and belief system. To have courage is to have the fortitude to take risks and to extend ones behaviors, actions, and thoughts beyond ones comfort zone. We appreciate that courage is often required to compromise. Courage is a state of mind to face adverse, difficult, and challenging situations with confidence and positive energy.

NSCH holds its patients in the highest regard. We provide care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient needs and values. We take the time to listen to concerns, understand what is important, and provide appropriate solutions and care. We do this through coordination and integration of care, collaboration, and teamwork.

North Shore Community Health began as Peabody Family Health Center in 1977 after a group of community members came together to discuss lack of access to high-quality primary care in their city. Peabody Family Health Center was launched and provided primary care to a diverse population of low-income, medically-underserved, uninsured, and under-insured area residents.

Peabody Family Health changed its name from Peabody Family Health Center to North Shore Community Health in 1980 to reflect its ever-growing scope. The North Shore Community Health expanded in 1990 and began servicing Salem with the opening of Salem Family Health Center. In 2008, North Shore Community Health expanded again with the opening of Gloucester Family Health Center.

NSCH opened a school-based clinic at Salem High around 1994. NSCH opened the Peabody High clinic opened in 2001, however, it closed in 2003 due to state grant funding cuts but re-opened in a brand new clinic in 2015.

Today, NSCH has three full-time Family Clinics: Salem, Peabody, and Gloucester Family Health. NSCH has the following school-based sites: Teen Health Center at Salem High School, the Student Health Center at Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, and five behavioral health-only sites at elementary and middle schools in Salem.

The Community Health Center movement has a rich history woven by medical providers, dental providers, healthcare workers, public policy makers, and consumers driven by the mission of providing high quality primary health care to the poor and underserved. The present-day Community Health Center movement history began as the Neighborhood Health Centers which were established in 1965 under the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) as a vehicle to provide health care to poor and medically underserved communities. The OEO provided services as a part of President Lyndon Johnsons War on Poverty.

The first two health centers in the nation were founded at Columbia Point, Dorchester MA, and Mound Bayou, Mississippi under the guidance of Doctor H. Jack Geiger and Doctor Count D. Gibson Jr. These two centers launched American Community Health Center Movement in urban and rural areas across the country, bringing a vision of comprehensive, community-based services for the poor and underserved.

The National Association of Neighborhood Health Centers (NACHC) was founded in 1971. The Associations objective was to provide education, training, and technical assistance to Neighborhood Health Center staff and community Board members. Between1985 and 1986, health centers formed state and regional Primary Care Associations (PCAs) to monitor state policy developments, obtain the first federal funding and recognition.

This health center is a Health Center Program grantee under 42 USC 254b, an FTCA Deemed Facility, and a deemed Public Health Service employer under 42 USC 233(g)-(n). 2018 North Shore Community Health, Inc. All Rights Reserved.