WHEREAS, for nearly 60 years, Maine’s community health centers have provided high-quality, affordable, comprehensive primary and preventive health care in our rural and underserved communities; and

WHEREAS, today, Maine’s community health centers serve over 200,000 Maine people; and

WHEREAS, Maine’s community health centers have integrated a wide range of services beyond primary care, including oral health, vision, behavioral health, nutrition, and pharmacy services in order to provide comprehensive care allowing each patient to thrive; and

WHEREAS, Maine’s community health centers are governed by patient-majority boards, ensuring patients are engaged in their health care decisions; and

WHEREAS, Maine’s community health centers are locally owned and operated small businesses that serve as critical economic engines, helping to power local economies by generating $575 million in economic activity each year; and

WHEREAS, Maine’s community health centers support more than 3,500 direct and indirect jobs, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and licensed family therapists who work as part of multi-disciplinary clinical teams designed to treat the whole patient; and

WHEREAS, the community health center model continues to prove an effective means of overcoming barriers to healthcare access, including geography, income, and insurance status, improving health outcomes and reducing healthcare system costs; and

WHEREAS, Maine Community Health Center Week offers the opportunity to celebrate Maine’s 20 community health center organizations with over 100 service delivery sites in all 16 counties, and we honor their dedicated staff, board members, patients, and all those responsible for their continued success;

NOW THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Janet T. Mills, Governor of the State of Maine, do hereby proclaim the week of August 3-9, 2025 as

Community Health Center Week

throughout the State of Maine, and I urge all citizens to recognize this observance.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the Great Seal of the State to be hereunto affixed GIVEN under my hand at Augusta this thirtieth day of July Two Thousand Twenty-Five