The Molina Foundation (I’Nella Douglass-Scott)
Posted by Wes Bradford
on Feb 04, 2014
I’Nella, the Outreach Coordinator for the Molina Foundation, reviewed her organization’s history. The first Molina medical clinic was founded by the late Dr C David Molina, to help uninsured, non-English speaking and low income patients. It now has clinics in 16 states.
The Foundation was founded in 2004 by Martha Molina Bernadett, MD, MBA (now a Paul Harris Fellow), after she noted that children in her waiting room wanted to take some of the children’s books home to read. The Foundation’s Mission is to reduce disparities in access to education and health by the underserved. Illiteracy is viewed as a health risk.
I’Nella, who sometimes dresses as “Horton Hears the Who” from the Dr Seuss books for children’s reading events, described how children (like the rest of us) like the feel of a book in their hands, holding it and owning it. She does not believe electronic readers will ever completely replace the usefulness of books. The Molina Foundation’s programs include Volunteers for collecting, packing and distributing children’s books, Community Service Projects dealing with promoting literacy events for children, Book Buddies (promoting reading enthusiasm in character to elementary school students), and First Book (providing children with their first self-selected book to take home).