The Palmetto Palace was founded on May 30, 2006 to help support underserved individuals and families in South Carolina. Seeing a need in the local health care system, founder Dr. Youlanda Gibbs created the organization to originally provide lodging and resources to those supporting a loved one who was hospitalized. This quickly expanded to additional health and support services, as well as food distribution for communities in need.

As Dr. Gibbs and her team of volunteers served a growing number of people close to her home base in Charleston, SC, she focused on expanding the organization in a large and meaningful way—by creating a mobile health unit to serve communities throughout the state, providing preventative medical and dental services to those in rural and underserved areas.

Through extensive fundraising and community support, the Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit made its debut on July 31, 2019. Shortly after it was ready for public service, COVID-19 hit and the Palmetto Palace pivoted quickly to meet the needs of its constituents—providing masks, public education and food distribution at first, then shifting to COVID-19 testing and eventually vaccines. To date, over 8,000 COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered through the Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit, making it one of the top ten percent of COVID-19 Providers in South Carolina.

The Palmetto Palace’s mission has always been to serve in the best way possible, offering help and hope through preventative and diagnostic care to underserved communities. Over the last several years our organization has risen to the occasion and provided additional services and resources to our community when they needed it most. Our goal is to continue increasing our reach and scope of services so that we can continue to provide top notch health care, public education, and additional resources to our friends and neighbors across the state.