New community wellness center coming to Chester

CHESTER >> A new community wellness center is coming to the former Family Dollar at 1929 W. Ninth St. at an indeterminate date this year. Keystone First announced its entry into a lease agreement for the 7,000 square foot site and preliminary plans for a health resource hub in a recent press release.

“We are still trying to determine the specific services to offer at the Chester center. Historically, we do it based on the needs of local residents,” company spokesman Jawanza Keita said by phone Wednesday.

Keystone First’s parent company AmeriHealth Caritas currently operates wellness centers in Shreveport, La.; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; and Bear, Del. Services offered at those locations include screenings, healthy eating and exercise classes, and job training. According to the release, Keystone First is “currently meeting with providers, community partners and members to build engagement” in determining what the Chester center will offer.

“We know that the root causes of many health issues can be attributable to social determinants of health – the social, economic and physical conditions that affect a person’s health, such as poverty, food insecurity, educational attainment and housing safety,” Keita said in a statement. “Our Chester Wellness Center will be another way to helps us to tailor our programs to specifically meet our members’ wellbeing.”

Keystone First is a Medical Assistance (Medicaid) managed care health plan, serving over 420,000 recipients in the fivecounty Philadelphia region. Its involvement in the greater Chester area includes an annual community fair and book bag distribution in the city’s West End and its work with Crozer-Keystone Health System on the Prevention, Education, Addiction, Recovery and Linkage Program (PEARL) to address rising Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome births.