NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center

NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center (formerly Pilot City) is a private non-profit health and human services agency serving North Minneapolis residents. It is one of the original 13 Neighborhood Service Programs (NSP) started across the country in 1967 as part of the Johnson Administration's War on Poverty. In the midst of blatant racial disturbances in urban communities, these multi-purpose service centers were established to provide accessible comprehensive social services to meet the needs of low-income and disenfranchised communities. NorthPoint shares its history and legacy as part of the civil rights movement in the 1960's when the community health center model was implemented in a housing project in Boston and in rural Bolivar County, Mississippi on the site of the oldest all-black town in the country. Dr. Jack Geiger modeled the country's first two community health centers after a model he observed in South Africa while working on a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in 1957. The model combined public health and clinical medicine under one roof. The early vision for community health centers was that they not only provided access to health care for poor communities, but they were centers for economic development, education and social justice. Consistent with Dr. Geiger's model, NorthPoint has provided health and human services to North Minneapolis, first as the Technical Advisory Committee to Implement Community Services (T.A.C.T.I.C.S) then as Pilot City and later as NorthPoint. Reflecting back on our humble beginnings as Pilot City, there are core principles and values that this organization was founded upon that remain our commitment today and into the future: Community engagement, leadership and governance is core to our mission and operations. A service delivery model that supports seamless and client-centered integration of services and maintains community partnerships. We are a place where clients and patients are customers, stakeholders and partners. We are a place where cultural needs, values and expressions are embraced. We value and support diversity, inclusion, compassion, stewardship, innovation and integrity. We are committed to as asset-based approach for community health and development. Improved access to health care, education, human and social capital is imperative for a healthy community. Today, as the sole survivor of the NSP centers, NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center not only aims to offer emergency services to families in crisis, NorthPoint continues to develop programs and services that empower clients. Avoiding the band-aid approach to solving problems and treating the symptoms, NorthPoint is working toward treating the problems through intervention, prevention and targeted outreach. NorthPoint will continue its legacy and vision as we move forward in charting our future in partnership with our patients, clients, community partners and the North Minneapolis community. Thank you North Minneapolis for more than 40 years of your support!