The Moody Foundation of Galveston awarded the Brownsville Moody Clinic with a $300,000 grant that will help them continue the therapy services for the community in order to help those who need it the most. The clinic, offers speech, occupational and physical therapy services at an affordable price for families who need it in Brownsville.
“We have a very long partnership with the Moody Foundation,” Jessica Cuevas, executive director at the clinic, said. “They originally awarded us $100,000 back in the late 60’s to build our current facility. That was the beginning of this relationship.”
Moody Clinic receives $1 million grant from foundation(Opens in a new browser tab)
Cuevas said the Moody Foundation has helped the clinic throughout the years to ensure children who need services continue to receive them. She said a few years ago when she started as a director, she was given the opportunity to have a meeting with members of the foundation where they helped the clinic tweak the business model to make it more sustainable and be able to still help those who need it.
“They really helped us tweak our business model to have a more balanced ratio of paying patients versus those who we can financially assist with reduced therapy fees,” Cuevas said.
“Gone are the days when Moody Clinic was a free clinic. It used to be no matter what your income level was, you walked through those doors and it was free. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to live through those golden years. So, we had to tweak our plan and the Moody Foundation helped us with that. They believed that we could do that and so we do, we run two different financial assistance programs. One, where families have to fall below poverty guidelines in order to qualify and the other one is where they have to show us a need for assistance.”
Cuevas said a couple of years ago the Moody Foundation also awarded them a grant to continue the services and added that the mission of the clinic aligns with the foundation because they both want communities to prosper and thrive. She said due to the COVID-19 pandemic, non-profits were struggling throughout the country and this $300,000 grant is much needed.
“They believed in our plan in helping us continue this plan moving forward. Their mission is empowering Texas communities to thrive and prosper and it really aligns with the Moody Clinic’s goal to provide the highest quality of services to maximize the potential of children with special needs,” she said.
“With the COVID pandemic, I think non-profits need help more than ever. Unfortunately, for my patients the need for therapy services doesn’t stop just because of the pandemic. We took a loss when the County issued the shelter in place; we went without about six weeks of therapy for our patients. … I feel for all of those non-profits out there, we are all in the same boat and we all need some assistance at this point.”
The Moody Clinic serves children from birth to up to 21 years of age.
“We serve all sorts of children with different disabilities. We serve children who may be born with Down syndrome or spina bifida. We also service children that have been diagnosed with autism, maybe children who stutter or have difficulty pronouncing certain words or sounds. We also work with children who have acquired injuries, children who have been in car accidents and broken a limb, or can no longer walk because there is a spinal cord injury, sports injuries for older children,” she said.
“We are working, really, with a wide variety of patients and we are just trying to meet their needs on a daily basis.”
