Martinez Street Women's Center: Free health care classes and counseling
Joleen Garcia sees women as the most important facet in a family, and believes building a stronger woman builds a stronger community.
For the past three years, Garcia, executive director of the Martinez Street Women's Center, has been helping to provide the East Side and South East Side of San Antonio a grassroots education in women's health.
"By working one by one with each family and each woman and each young girl, then overall we're going to be supporting a really strong East Side San Antonio," says Garcia.
The center, located at 1510 South Hackberry, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2010, gets its name from the original location on Martinez Street in the King William District. It relocated to South Hackberry, in the Denver Heights neighborhood, to better serve that community.
The center is open to the pubic and provides health care information for free. It focuses on training and empowering women by providing such resources as parenting classes and counseling.
The Martinez Street Women's Center provides numerous sources of information on:
- Diabetes prevention
- Breast health
- Pre-natal, pregnancy and breastfeeding
- Mental health and counseling services
- Positive Parenting course (8-week certified course)
The center also has a variety of outlets for young girls to become involved in their community though health development, technology and art. The center creates the Girlzone Newspaper, which reaches 7,200 readers annually, that is run by the girls of the Studio4 FM Girl Empowerment program.
The Martinez Street Women's Center will host and participate in a variety of events throughout the year, including:
- Marching in the International Woman's Day March on March 6.
- Women Leaders of Today and Tomorrow exhibit at The Carver Community Cultural Center - March 23.
For more information, visit www.mswomenscenter.org.
Each month, NOWCastSA highlights a nonprofit organization or activist in the community. To suggest an organization, activist or grassroots movement, e-mail news@nowcastsa.org.
