Hand-painted messages like “You are worth it,” “You are perfect” and “You are loved” adorn the walls of exam rooms at the Price Hill Health Center.
The center has been getting a facelift over the past few months. Volunteers have been scrubbing baseboards, cleaning tile and de-cluttering and organizing years of files and papers. Doors and walls are changing from clinical taupe to bold colors like orange, green, aqua blue and salmon.
These renovations are part of
Cradle Cincinnati’s newest initiative, Happy to Wait, to make health centers more welcoming environments — a place mothers and their families would be happy to return to for support and encouragement.
The project, led by UC’s school of
Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) professor Ryan Mulligan and his students, will transform local health centers into a place where women can receive the care they really need.
“These are our moms, and this is our city,” Mulligan says. “I’m dedicated to doing this, to dreaming up ways for artists to give back, to helping families feel loved and to help women feel like the city cares about them — not just the baby — during and after pregnancy.”
Donations to renovate the facility have come from across the region, including
River City Furniture,
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital,
Cincinnati Health Department,
Valspar,
Sherwin Williams,
School Outfitters and
RJE Business Interiors.
“If we can make the health centers truly feel like centers of health, imagine the kind of city this could be,” Mulligan says.
The Happy to Wait initiative plans to have 20 local health facilities finished within the next five years, he says.
Do Good:
• Interested in volunteering? Join the Happy to Wait team by contacting
Ryan Mulligan.
• See more photos of students and volunteers working at Price Hill Health Center
here.
• Follow their progress on
Facebook.
• Write a
letter of encouragement to a pregnant woman in the city.
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