Fri, Sept 5

“If the clinic can’t come to us, we die waiting.”
—Ms. Loretta, Vermilion Parish

In the rural South, healthcare isn’t delayed. It’s denied.

That’s what led Nurse Celeste Broussard, a team of medics, and a borrowed FEMA van to launch a mobile health revolution across southern Louisiana—with blood pressure cuffs, Narcan kits, and a grant strategy riding shotgun.

This is the story of how a bus became a lifeline.

🚨 The Crisis: When Health Care Drives Away

After hurricanes, budget cuts, and rural hospital closures, access to care in Louisiana shrank to a whisper:

• Over half of parishes had no 24-hour ER

• A third had no OB/GYN

• Chronic disease went untreated

• Pregnant women gave birth at home—or in transit

• Elderly residents were rationing insulin and inhalers

This wasn’t apathy. It was absence.

And absence, in healthcare, is deadly.

🛠️ The Solution: Build a Clinic on Wheels

Enter Bayou Wellness—founded by Celeste Broussard, a trauma nurse with a grudge against red tape and a passion for her people.

Her team:

• Brother Elijah, EMT turned preacher

• “Meds” Duval, a pharmacy tech with neighborhood tabs on every missed refill

• LSU public health students needing real-world labs

• Retired military medics who knew both triage and trust

Together, they converted a van into a rolling clinic:

• Vitals station

• Prescription drop-off & Narcan training

• Therapy referrals

• Digital tablets for telehealth signups

They named her Miss Wellness.
Then, they called me.

🧠 Strategy: Write the Grant Like It’s a Rescue Manual

Celeste didn’t need advice. She needed funding. Fast.

We wrote the proposal like it was life or death—because it was.

Here’s how we framed it:

Not a pilot. A rural health highway.

Not a workaround. A blueprint.

Not charity. Infrastructure justice.

We mapped:

• “Health deserts” by census tract

• Mortality rates vs. hospital distance

• Climate vulnerability layered over care gaps

We built a stacked grant approach, targeting:

• HRSA Rural Health Outreach

• Kresge Foundation’s Health & Human Services RFP

• AmeriCares Emergency Deployment Funds

• State opioid mitigation grants for Narcan delivery

And we led with the voice of the people—like Loretta, who said:

“This bus? It don’t just stop here. It saves us.”

💰 The Results: From Proposal to Power

Within 90 days:

• $3.4 million raised

• Three buses deployed across Acadiana parishes

• Staff: 6 nurses, 2 therapists, 3 peer navigators, 1 mechanic

• 6,800 residents served in Year One

• Opioid overdose reversals +35%

• New maternal care circles, blood pressure classes, and grief support added

The buses run five days a week.
And Ms. Loretta? She’s now greeter and blood pressure champion in St. Landry Parish.

🔑 Mr. Grant Money’s Bayou Takeaways

Here’s what I learned—deep in the dirt roads and devotion of Louisiana:

1. Mobility = Medicine

If you can’t move the patient to care, move the care to the patient.

2. Permanent, Not Pilot

We don’t test-drive bridges or clean water.
Stop piloting healthcare. Fund it for the long haul.

3. Hire from the Healing

Celeste didn’t hire from job boards.
She hired from grief, grit, and gut instinct.

4. Pitch the Person, Not Just the Problem

You don’t need 14 metrics.
You need a grandmother with a blood pressure cuff and a story.

5. Care is the system

Sometimes the bus isn’t delivering care.
It is the system.

🚍 Ready to Roll in Your Region?

Got an empty church van?
A retired medic with time?
A parking lot outside a food pantry?

You’re one story, one spreadsheet, one partnership away from your own wellness-on-wheels movement.

You bring the trust.
I’ll bring the grant map.

Let’s get rolling.

– Mr. Grant Money

💬 Discussion Questions

1. What happens to health outcomes when care requires a car, a co-pay, and time off work?

2. Where in your town could a mobile health unit have the most impact?

3. Who are the healers in your community already doing the work without the title?

4. Why does mobile care need equity framing—not charity optics?

5. What’s stopping your community from launching its own bus-based health justice movement?