Community Relations Report: Working Together to Sustain a Thriving Community

Mayo Clinic's founding fathers believed in giving back to the community. In many ways, Mayo Clinic and its staff continue the tradition of service established by Drs. Will and Charlie Mayo. Here are a few highlights of our year in service:

The arts

• Using a grant from Mayo Clinic, the Rochester Art Center is creating a Learning Center for the Arts. The center will provide arts curriculum support to teachers of students from kindergarten through college.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic provides financial support to more than two dozen visual and performing arts organizations in Rochester and the surrounding area.
  
  

Diversity

• Mayo Clinic provides leadership to the Diversity Leadership Alliance in Arizona, a community collaborative dedicated to building, empowering and sustaining a community.
  
  
• Through its Diversity Interest Groups in Arizona, Mayo Clinic provides health care and other outreach services, financial contributions and volunteers for various community projects.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic staff work with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and the American Heart Association to address health disparities in the Jacksonville community. The groups educated and screened more than 60,000 people in 2006 on issues related to heart health and stroke. As part of this effort, Mayo physicians addressed congregants in a dozen African-American churches.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic supports Study Circles, a community program in Jacksonville that fosters positive race relations and understanding. Study Circle participants attend a series of meetings, during which they are guided through a curriculum designed to promote understanding of differences. Mayo has hosted two Study Circles on its campus, and plans to host additional sessions.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic targeted outreach efforts to address the educational differences between the majority and minority communities in Jacksonville. Through Junior Achievement, staff have presented programs to assist students in better understanding the business environment. Additionally, staff have spoken at career fairs, read-a-thons and educational workshops. Mayo is a business partner at three local elementary schools, providing representation on School Advisory Committees, donating furniture and supplies, staffing health fairs, and participating in reading programs.
  
  
• Nearly 18,000 children participated in Prejudice Reduction workshops, thanks to financial support from Mayo Clinic and other organizations in Rochester. Teachers give the program good grades for engaging students and teaching the lessons of respect and understanding.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic support provided equipment to a Rochester chapter of the Black Data Processing Associates, a group that teaches advanced programming skills to high school students from diverse backgrounds. This group recently won second place in a national programming competition.

Health care

• Mayo Clinic provided board leadership, volunteers and financial contributions to the Arizona Transplant House through fundraisers, direct contributions and a 5K run/walk fitness camp.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic staff in Arizona volunteer at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul health clinic, which serves homeless and disadvantaged populations.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic staff in Jacksonville volunteer at the Volunteers in Medicine clinic, which provides health services to the uninsured.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic established the Mayo exam room at the Salzbacher Center for the Homeless in Jacksonville.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic provided a start-up grant to Apple Tree Dental, a nonprofit organization that provides dental care to people who have special dental access needs in Rochester. The grant enables dentists and hygienists to visit southeastern Minnesota nursing homes and group homes for the developmentally disabled to provide care.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic provided capital campaign contributions of $100,000 each to the Ronald McDonald House and Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester. The contributions helped finance needed expansions at the facilities, which offer long-term, low-cost housing for patients and family members.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic provides financial support, equipment and volunteers to the Good Samaritan Medical and Dental Clinics, which provide medical and dental care to those who lack resources to pay for health care in Rochester.
  
  

Hunger

• Mayo Clinic employees in Arizona donated hundreds of pounds of food to the Joshua Tree Food Shelter, the Ronald McDonald House and the Mesa Men's Shelter. Mayo Clinic Arizona also supports food banks and meal programs for the homeless and underserved through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic's support for Channel One Food Shelf helped launch a much-needed warehouse expansion effort in Rochester. In addition, Mayo employees contributed 4,586 pounds of food to Channel One.
  
  

Serving the underserved

• As part of the seventh annual Big Hearts Warm Small Hands collection event, Mayo Clinic employees in Rochester donated warm winter outerwear to more than 500 families.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic helped fund scholarships for five students, the first graduates from the community health worker program at Rochester Community and Technical College. This program prepares graduates to help people from diverse cultures gain better access to the health care system.
  
  

United Way

• Each year, Mayo Clinic sponsors a United Way fundraising drive. In 2006, Mayo Clinic employees pledged nearly $1.4 million to the United Way. The total contribution of $1.75 million was the largest United Way contribution in Mayo Clinic history.
  
  

Youth

• Together with the University of North Florida, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville hosts a Minorities in Medicine Symposium for 10th graders and their parents. More than 60 students attended the symposium in 2006.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic made a capital campaign donation to the Gamehaven Council of Boy Scouts, which will help construct a community building on the council's 262-acre camp near Rochester. The building will enable the council's 5,000 scouts to participate in year-round activities.
  
  
• A contribution from Mayo Clinic helped jump-start First Steps, a community effort for early childhood development in Rochester.