Sunset rebrands itself to better reflect its modern, evolving health care services

SOMERTON — A nonprofit organization has rebranded itself to reflect its evolving health care mission over more than four decades of service in Yuma County.

Sunset Community Health Center is now Sunset Health, and with the name change comes a new logo and a new motto: “Your place for optimal health.” The new name now appears on each of its clinics in Yuma, Somerton, San Luis, Ariz., and Wellton.

“For more than a year we have been working on the evolution of the brand for the organization, in what was an initiative of the board of directors and the administration,” said Manuel Figueroa, Sunset’s board president. “We wanted a name that would better reflect what Sunset is, something more modern, and that would put an end to the stigmas that there are in the community about the organization, among our clients, and even among our providers.”

For example, he said, the Sunset’s former name contributed to the perception it was one clinic when, in fact, it has 17 clinics or other facilities around the county.

Moreover, he added, its name led some people to believe Sunset treated only low-income or uninsured patients, when, in fact, it services anyone.

Originally funded in 1972 with a Public Health Service grant to the Yuma County Migrant Health Program, Sunset began operating in 1976 as Valley Health Center in a trailer parked near migrant work camps.

It formally became Sunset Community Health Center in 1997,

Today it employs more than 300, 35 of whom are health care providers, serving nearly 30,000 patients. Over the years, its health care services have diversified to include family medicine, dental health, pediatrics, behavioral health, women’s health, and treatment of attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity.

Apart from its fixed sites, Sunset also has mobile dental and medical clinics, as well as clinic sites in schools in Somerton and Yuma to treat children.

Sunset’s board and staff worked over the past year with a marketing firm in the rebranding.

“The goal of this effort is to help the Yuma population understand who we are, what we do, why we do it and how it will benefit them,” said David Rogers, Sunset Health’s chief executive officer.

Concurrently with the rebranding, Sunset Health is coming to the end of the third phase of work on its north Yuma clinic and is planning for construction of a new clinic site in Somerton.

Rogers said Sunset Health is in talks with Somerton officials to purchase land for the clinic on the city’s west site, not far from where a future high school is planned.

“People are excited to know that Sunset will have a new clinic in Somerton,” Figueroa said. “As soon as we reach an agreement with the city, we will be ready to begin the project. But if not there, it will be in another part of the city. The clinic will be done, It’s just a matter of deciding where.”