Philadelphia – Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) visited the Mazzoni Center on Thursday and announced $400,000 in funding for the center’s community projects.
“The community project funds will modernize the center’s basic equipment such as vital signs monitoring equipment, security systems and air conditioning. It will also enable Mazzoni to purchase a generator,” Casey said.
“We know that for many of our clients, this is the only place they feel comfortable receiving care,” said David Weisberg, executive development and communications director for the Mazzoni Center, which he said is the largest LGBTQ nonprofit in Philadelphia, serving 15,000 clients a year and employing 130 staff members.
Dr. Stacey Truskin, executive medical director of the Mazzoni Center, said the center offers medical care including gender reassignment treatment, HIV treatment, treatment for opioid use disorder and primary care.
“We pride ourselves on being a one-stop shop for all our patients,” she said.
Truskin said that last year, the Mazzoni Center provided more than 5,500 vaccinations and more than 7,200 testing visits to patients, including more than 100 patients each month who received HIV medication, and stressed that constant access to electricity is essential for the center to care for its patients.
“We’re very grateful and feel very relieved to have a generator available to protect us from a service outage,” Truskin said.
Federal funding also Low-threshold service She added that STD testing, HIV testing and viral hepatitis testing are available at the Western Washington facility.
“I’m grateful to be here during Pride Month and to be able to share some good news from Washington. This is not something we get to do every week,” Casey said.
Sultan Shakir, president and executive director of the Mazzoni Center, said the funding “will really impact our ability to provide culturally competent care to those in need in our community.”
The funding was set aside as part of the 2024 government budget bill.
