Michael Jordan donates $7 million to open 2 Charlotte health clinics

Michael Jordan will fund two new medical clinics in impoverished Charlotte communities with $7 million of his own money, the Charlotte Observer reported on Sunday. Jordan is the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets.

The money is going to Novant Health and will fund the two Novant Health Michael Jordan Family Clinics, which will be built in north Charlotte. While south Charlotte is rich and growing, north Charlotte is “home to some of the city’s densest concentrations of poverty,” according to the Observer.

Children born in Charlotte have the worst odds of escaping poverty of any major city in the country, according to one Harvard-led study. Jordan had been in talks with North Carolina-based Novant — the Hornets’ official health care provider since the franchise’s inception — for more than a year to find ways to help families and children in poverty.

Lack of access to proper health care was a leading issue for those in poverty, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force, a council that was put together to combat the poverty problems that the city faces. Two new clinics in the poorest parts of the city should help.

Last year, Jordan donated $2 million to groups working to end police shootings. He has a net worth of $1.39 billion, according to Forbes.