The Bushwick Family Ministries, a ministry of The Church of God of Prophecy, located at 1243 Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, held their Annual Community Family Health Day Street Fair on Saturday, Aug. 25.
Community Coordinator at the church Dawn Baxter said, “The goal of the health fair is to show the local community the wealth of resources available to them in Brooklyn.” Ms. Baxter coordinated the street fair, along with a large staff at the church that works with her reaching out to the community. Bishop Basil McPherson Sr. serves as pastor for this church.
The Bushwick Family Ministries visited more than 100 families within the community leaving families with a giveaway bag filled with information. The ministries also serve 500 – 800 people weekly at their food pantry each Friday night. “Helping families to understand that they are not alone, and do not have to suffer in silence with things like high blood pressure and diabetes, or struggle for lack of child care or financial resources such as food stamps, is one of the reasons that lead her to reach out to the community and also to help point families to Christ,” said Baxter.
The community support for this event was tremendous; several organizations such as the Brooklyn AIDS Task Force, Champion Children’s Learning Center, National Kidney Foundation and Housing Works came out to service the community. Health screenings such as HIV testing, diabetes screening, blood pressure, cholesterol screening checks were offered. Other services included free or low cost health insurance provided by Neighborhood Health Providers, the sponsor of the Community Family Health Fair Day event.
“Since it is not always possible for community residents and needy families to obtain services that are useful to them, we bring the services right to their door. It was a great day; music, food, fun and connecting people to resources and God,” said Baxter.
