State Of The Art Wellness Center Under Construction In OKC

A state of the art wellness center is going up in Oklahoma City that covers 54 acres and every possible health service. It is free for the public to use and the Oklahoma City County Health Department picked the northeast location near 63rd and MLK for a very specific reason.

The public can now walk the trails, play on the playground and adopt plots in the soon-to-be community garden at Oklahoma City's new Wellness Center.

“We want to empower our community to take back your health and the way we do that is making those resources available,” said OCCD Chief of Staff Jackie Shawnee.

The campus is 54-acres of green space that will also have an amphitheater and sports fields, alongside three buildings.

The main facility that is already complete has administrative offices, a training kitchen for cooking classes and a community auditorium.

The nearby OSU Extension Office is almost complete and will open in the next few days. The OSU Extension will offer anything from master gardeners to nutritional experts.

The third building will be an integrated clinic of NorthCare Mental Health Services, OU Physicians, North Rock Pharmacy, the Food Bank and the YWCA and more. It opens in November and offers every possible service in one place like a one-stop shop.

“Whatever that need is that is keeping them from being healthy and well, we can address that here today,” said Shawnee.

The health department built at this location because the 73111 zip code and surrounding zip codes have the worst health outcomes.

Health officials hope the wellness center helps eliminate the barriers people have to getting healthy.

“Oklahoma has a poor health ranking and so we can't do it just working in silo, so coming together to really address that need as one,” Shawnee told News 9.

The health department also identified the southeast side of Oklahoma City as high risk for health problems and is planning to replicate the NE wellness campus in SE OKC soon.