CINCINNATI — For NeighborHub Heath, their mission is to help the helpless.

“We understand that people don’t only come through our doors when they need something. So we need to find them,” said Brian Vanderhorst, CEO of NeighborHub Health.

Now, thanks to a $485,000 grant the health care center received from the OneOhio Recovery Foundation, Vanderhorst and his team are taking that mission to the next level.

The grant will help fund NeighborHub’s street medicine and harm reduction services. Teams work across Hamilton County to help people who are homeless or addicted to drugs.

“It’s a program designed to bring our services to the streets,” Vanderhorst added.

This program is expected to grow, as the grant will finance the purchase of a fully equipped sprinter van for physical and mental health care.

NeighborHub Health already has two vehicles in its fleet, a mobile medical and dental van. Vanderhosrt told WCPO that due to the size of the vehicle, they were primarily used to visit shelters to provide care.

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But this new, smaller van will reach areas where people live, whether along streets, under bridges or even in wooded encampments.

The health center said the van should be on the roads by February. Before that, the center will work with partners who already have mobile health clinics.

Dr. Joseph Kiesler, NeighborHub Health’s director of street medicine, said the program provides physical, mental and emotional care to their patients.

​“When someone becomes homeless, a lot of times people feel ignored, invisible and sometimes lose hope. And what we hope as a team is to start providing that hope,” said Kiesler.

Kiesler said the mobile team would provide medical care on the streets twice a week, while harm reduction would work in the van three times a week. Harm reduction will focus on connecting with those who are struggling and building trust between provider and patient.