R.N. Coordinator. Our current coordinator, Gloria Rose, has been an amazing help getting us up and runnig. She will continue to coordinate but we are actively searching for a bilingual RN from the Olneyville or Washtington Park location who will take over from Gloria as we are now getting too busy for the limited number of hourse she has available.

Office help. We just hired a long time volunteer at the clinic, to do office work. His English and Spanish are both great. AND He lives in Olneyville! (Our neighborhood-to-be!)

Outreach workers. The Navegantes” (Navigators) will be lay outreach workers who will spread the word about the clinic and help patients in our clinics get access to care – either in our clinic, or through existing free care systems (such as free care at Rhode Island Hospital). They will also serve as advocates for our patients, traveling with them to hospital appointments as need be. We are building on a successful model established here in Rhode Island by our Navegantes coordinator, Vinnie Velazquez, and also in Mali by Medical Director Annie De Groot M.D. The training for new Navegantes is currently scheduled for Jan 8/9. To coordinate the training and the outreach workers once they are hired, we hired Vinnie Velazquez, who does outreach for MAP and also for Progresso Latino. This is yet another exciting effort to get our community better access to health care – our training will be on Jan 8, 9.

Grants

We received significant support this year from CDBG, from PEDB and from the Carter Foundation ($10,000) this year. We also received support from Roche for HCV outreach.These funds are sufficient to keep our doors open until July 2010. We thank our funders!

Best
Annie De Groot M.D.

Medical Director, Clinica Esperanza / Hope Clinic
Temporary Address – 146 Clifford Street, Providence RI 02903
Future address – 60 Valley Street, Providence RI 02909
http://www.aplacetobehealthy.org