DAP Health to Receive $1 Million

DAP Health to Receive $1 Million from State Assemblymembers Eduardo Garcia and Greg Wallis

PALM SPRINGS – At 8 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 23, California State Assemblymembers Greg Wallis, R-Bermuda Dunes, and Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, will present DAP Health with a $1 million check. The presentation will take place at DAP Health’s main campus at 1695 N. Sunrise Way in Palm Springs.

This contribution, secured through Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2023-24 state budget, underscores the elected officials’ commitment to DAP Health’s goal of providing comprehensive, judgment-free health care to more than 100,000 residents at a total of 25 Southern California clinics located within 240 rural and urban zip codes from the Salton Sea to San Diego.

At the ceremony, DAP Health Chief Operating Officer Corina Velasquez will welcome guests and reiterate the organization’s innovative, patient-centered, whole-person approach, which includes the offering of a host of wraparound services. Velasquez will then introduce longtime DAP Health CEO David Brinkman and the assemblymembers.

“I look forward to expressing my deep gratitude to Assemblymembers Wallis and Garcia in person,” Brinkman said in a statement. “During this unprecedented period of growth for DAP Health, this funding will be instrumental as we hire more than two dozen new physicians and train them at our Sunrise campus so that our unique model of care can become the standard across all 25 of our sites. This show of faith from the assemblymembers — as well as from Governor Newsom and Assembly Budget Committee Chair Phil Ting — means the world to us as we continue to seek financing for our growth in health markets both within and beyond the Coachella Valley.”

Last July, Assemblymembers Wallis and Garcia announced the $1 million appropriation for DAP Health in the 2023-24 state budget, and earlier this year, Assemblymember Wallis recognized DAP Health as the 47th Assembly District’s Nonprofit of the Year, highlighting its outstanding contributions to the community.

“I am truly inspired by the efforts of the dedicated professionals and over 400 volunteers associated with DAP Health,” Wallis said in a statement. “The funds we were able to secure from the state will support their endeavors to serve a diverse range of patients across various fields, encompassing HIV care, primary care, women’s health, and essential social programs. These initiatives play a crucial role in improving the well-being of some of the desert’s most medically underserved residents.”

“The well-being of our medically underserved community relies on health centers like DAP Health,” Garcia said in a statement. “Delivering this $1 million state budget investment will help DAP Health to expand health care services and support our region’s urgent workforce training needs.”

About DAP Health
DAP Health is an internationally renowned humanitarian health care organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC) whose goal is to protect and expand health care access for all people — especially the disenfranchised — regardless of who or where they are, their health status, or whether they have health insurance.

In 2023, the nonprofit made a successful bid to absorb the Borrego Health System, enabling it to serve more than 100,000 patients of all populations, genders, and ages — from newborns to seniors — at a total of 25 Southern California clinics located within 240 rural and urban zip codes from the Salton Sea to San Diego.

For years, DAP Health’s programs and services have included primary care, infectious diseases, gender-affirming care, LGBTQ+ care, mental health, dentistry, harm reduction, recovery services, affordable housing, social services, and HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. The additional disciplines now under its vast umbrella include family medicine, women’s health (including OB-GYN), pediatrics, veterans’ health, geriatrics, urgent care, and pharmacy services.

The organization was founded as Desert AIDS Project in 1984 by a group of volunteers. Thanks to nearly 40 years of experience caring for those affected not only by the HIV epidemic but by various other public health emergencies (COVID-19, mpox), DAP Health has the physical and intellectual resources, the drive, and — most importantly — the vision to effect even greater change by positively impacting its diverse patient populations’ social determinants of health (SDOH).

According to the World Health Organization, SDOH are “the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life.”