Florence, S.C., has long been known as the medical hub of South Carolina’s Pee Dee region. But as recently as 2001, access to health care for the city’s indigent population living in neighborhoods near two modern medical centers was so lacking the federal government designated the areas as medically underserved.

Carolina College of Social Work alumni Carl Humphries, Derek Brown, and Mulamba Lunda, all in their 30s, were aware of the problem because of their respective work as executive director, director of development, and director of program services for HopeHealth.

The independent, non-profit public health organization in Florence specializes in providing services for the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS.

The three also knew HopeHealth’s services could be dramatically increased by applying for status as a federal Community Health Center that would serve a broader array of medical needs, regardless of clients’ financial status.

Their extensive efforts in pursing center status were rewarded in June 2007 when HopeHealth received a grant to become South Carolina’s 20th such center that will serve thousands of vulnerable citizens in the coming years. “This has been a highlight of my professional life,” said Brown, who received a joint master’s degree in social work and public health from the University in 1999 and is now director of development for Carolina’s School of Social Work.

“It was great to know that people in Florence who needed medical care could now get it at HopeHealth,” said Lunda, also a joint master’s recipient in social work and public health (2000) who credits Carolina with “equipping and enabling me to be confident in delivery of whatever type of community service I’m giving.”