Health and Prescription Services (HAPS) is a community-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting better health and quality of life by assisting and empowering individuals in need. Founded in 1960, HAPS has served South Mississippi for more than 65 years, adapting its services as the needs of our community have changed while remaining committed to one fundamental belief: a person's financial circumstances should not prevent them from having an opportunity to become healthier, safer, and more stable.
HAPS serves individuals and families who are uninsured, underinsured, experiencing homelessness, living on limited incomes, facing mental health or substance-use challenges, or simply experiencing a crisis that has left them without the resources they need. Many of the people who come to HAPS have already tried multiple avenues for assistance and do not know where else to turn.
Our role is often to fill the gap.
What We Do
HAPS provides direct assistance and resource navigation based on the individual needs of each client. Services may include financial assistance for prescription medications, small medical devices and supplies, medical-related travel, hygiene necessities, transportation assistance, identification documents, and other health-related unmet needs.
We also help individuals navigate complicated applications and paperwork for programs such as disability benefits, SNAP, Medicaid, housing, and other community resources. HAPS provides referrals and warm handoffs to trusted partner organizations when another agency can better meet a client's long-term needs.
Our work extends beyond the walls of our office. HAPS distributes hygiene and emergency supplies to vulnerable individuals, provides warming supplies during periods of extreme cold, participates in community outreach events, distributes resource information, connects individuals with mental health and addiction treatment services, and works alongside healthcare providers, first responders, nonprofit organizations, and other community partners.
Sometimes our assistance is as straightforward as purchasing a prescription someone cannot afford. Other situations require weeks or months of advocacy, paperwork, phone calls, referrals, and problem-solving.
We meet people where they are and work with them toward where they need to be.
Small Organization. Significant Reach.
One of the things that makes HAPS unique is how much is accomplished with very limited resources. HAPS operates with a small organizational footprint and relies heavily on collaboration, community partnerships, responsible stewardship, and the support of donors and volunteers.
Rather than attempting to duplicate services already available in the community, HAPS works closely with other organizations to identify resources, make appropriate referrals, and help clients successfully connect with those services. These partnerships allow us to stretch limited dollars further and create a broader network of support for the people we serve.
Our goal is not simply to solve today's immediate problem. Whenever possible, we work to help individuals move toward long-term stability and independence.
A prescription can allow someone to become healthy enough to return to work. An identification document can open the door to employment, housing, healthcare, and benefits. Transportation assistance can help someone reach necessary medical care. Help completing an application can connect a senior or individual with a disability to benefits that provide ongoing stability. A referral to treatment can become the beginning of recovery.
Sometimes a relatively small amount of assistance can change the direction of someone's life.
Why Volunteers Matter
Volunteers bring more than their time to HAPS. They bring experience, knowledge, professional skills, community connections, creativity, and new perspectives.
Because HAPS is a small organization, volunteer involvement can have a meaningful impact. Individuals may contribute through community outreach, special projects, fundraising, donation drives, professional expertise, administrative assistance, resource development, or service on our volunteer Board of Directors.
We especially value volunteers who believe in treating every individual with dignity and respect. The people we serve are not defined by homelessness, poverty, mental illness, addiction, disability, unemployment, or the crisis that brought them through our doors. They are our neighbors, parents, grandparents, veterans, workers, and community members.
Volunteering with HAPS means becoming part of a network of people working to make South Mississippi healthier and stronger.
Why Donations Matter
At HAPS, donations are not abstract numbers on a financial statement. They become real assistance for real people.
A donation can become a prescription.
It can become transportation to medical care.
It can help purchase a small medical device.
It can provide hygiene supplies to someone experiencing homelessness.
It can help someone obtain the documents needed to apply for employment or housing.
It can help connect someone struggling with mental health or substance use to appropriate services.
And sometimes, a donation simply allows HAPS to say "yes, we can help" when someone has heard "no" everywhere else.
Financial contributions also help sustain the basic operational infrastructure necessary to provide these services. Every nonprofit needs the ability to answer the phone, maintain an office, communicate with partners, conduct outreach, maintain records, purchase supplies, and remain available when someone needs assistance. Supporting those expenses is also supporting the mission.
More Than Charity — A Community Investment
Helping someone become healthier and more stable benefits more than that individual.
When people can access medication, healthcare, identification, benefits, treatment, employment, housing, and supportive resources, they have a greater opportunity to become independent and participate fully in their community.
That can mean fewer preventable crises, greater employment stability, improved health outcomes, stronger families, and more productive communities.
For more than six decades, HAPS has evolved to meet changing community needs. What began in 1960 as an organization responding to serious illnesses of that era has grown into an agency addressing many of the health and social barriers affecting South Mississippi residents today.
The services have changed and expanded, but our purpose has remained remarkably consistent:
Help people when they need it. Treat them with dignity. Remove barriers. Connect them with resources. Give them an opportunity to move forward.
Become Part of the HAPS Mission
You do not have to be wealthy to make a difference, and you do not need unlimited free time to be a valuable volunteer.
You simply need to believe that healthier individuals help create healthier communities.
Whether you contribute financially, volunteer your time, donate needed items, share professional expertise, introduce HAPS to potential community partners, organize a donation drive, serve on our Board, or simply help others learn about our work, you become part of a mission that has served South Mississippi for generations.
For more than 65 years, HAPS has been helping our neighbors overcome barriers to better health and greater stability. With the continued support of volunteers, donors, businesses, and community partners, we can continue being there for the next person who needs someone to say, "Let's see how we can help."
Health and Prescription Services (HAPS)
Empowerment through better health.
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