I hope this letter finds you well. As I write to you, I am thinking about the power of place.

We often hear the phrase “location, location, location” in the context of real estate, but it also applies to health.

After all, we live in a society where our zip code often impacts our health more than our genetic code. This is evident in King County where your life expectancy will range from 75.2 to 86.7 years depending on where you live. An 11.5-year difference is the kind of gap you might expect between countries in different parts of the world, not communities that are 20 minutes apart.

That is why HealthPoint’s mission is to strengthen communities and improve people’s health by delivering quality health care services, breaking down barriers, and providing access to all.

Community comes first because it affects everything: from the air we breathe, to the places our children can play, to the possibilities we perceive.

Community is the soil that nourishes our collective health. As any gardener or community health professional will tell you, there is no quick fix to achieve healthy soils or strong communities. It takes time, investment, and careful cultivation.

Which is why, for 52 years, HealthPoint has located in and partnered with underserved communities across King County. Our health centers provide medical, dental, behavioral, pharmacy, and social services to more than 100,000 people regardless of income, insurance, immigration, or any other status.

But being present is not enough – especially in areas where systemic inequities have built barriers to care and eroded trust. In these communities, it’s not about: “build it and they will come,” but instead “build relationships and meet people where they are.” Whether that’s at a school, a tent encampment, a mosque, a daycare, a consulate, a community center, a church, or a home. It is about partnering with the places that people love, trust, and frequent, rather than expecting people to come to us.

Because when it comes to community health, only community members have the expertise, experience, and connections to create lasting change. HealthPoint’s role is to listen, learn, and work alongside all members of our community, including the most vulnerable.

That term—”vulnerable”—gets used a lot, and I want to be clear that no person is inherently vulnerable. It is the situations they are placed in that make them vulnerable. Situations like unequal access to housing, transportation, education, and health care. Situations like racism, violence, addiction, and poverty.

While the systems that contribute to these vulnerable situations are deeply flawed, the people themselves are resilient and dynamic. It is a privilege to partner with them. This year’s report will highlight several examples of those partnerships with: people living unhoused; members of our LGBTQ+ community seeking supportive, gender-affirming care; community members struggling with opioid use; and our nationally recognized work with refugee communities.

Thank you for taking the time to learn about and support our work.

When we invest in strong communities today, we not only improve health, but we plant the seeds for a flourishing future we can all share.

In health and community,

Lisa Yohalem, CEO