The Suitcase Clinic

Structured around the principles of public health, social welfare, community activism and empathy, the Suitcase Clinic currently operates three weekly multi-service drop-in centers in the city Berkeley: the General Clinic, the Women’s Clinic and the Youth Clinic.

General Clinic: Operates on Tuesday nights from 6:30-9:00pm and is located at First Presbyterian Church on 2407 Dana Street

Womens Clinic: Operates on Monday nights from 7:00-9:00pm and is located at Dwight Way Womens Shelter on 2140 Dwight Way.

Youth Clinic: Operates on Monday nights from 6:00-9:30 and is located at St. Mark's Episcopal Church on 2300 Bancroft Way.

The Suitcase Clinic is a humanitarian student organization and volunteer community offering free health and social services to underserved populations since 1989.

Our organization was founded by students from the UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program (JMP) and UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health out of a desire to address the unmet needs of the city of Berkeley’s homeless and low-income population. In addition to providing services, the Suitcase Clinic strives to educate students, promote health care access, engage in community organization, and support public policy efforts that address homelessness and the needs of the underserved in the local community.

The mission of the Suitcase Clinic is to promote the health and overall wellbeing of underserved individuals through service provision, cooperative learning, and collective action among community and professional volunteers, students, and participants.

We, community and professional volunteers, students, and participants ...

• Join together as a group of volunteers in a cooperative relationship with the community, to be advocates for homeless people;
• Provide continuous aid to the homeless and low-income groups, regardless of their ability to pay;
• Help those who want help with health and social services, using our skills to make it possible for them to help themselves;
• Provide assistance regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or lifestyle, not discriminating against anybody in need;
• Recognize that health and well-being affect the spectrum of life;
• Strive to make a long term difference through commitment;
• Maintain this mission through constant reevaluation and effort to benefit homeless individuals in any way that we, as a group, are able.

All of our volunteers are required to undergo extensive training before participating in the Suitcase Clinic in order to understand how it operates and to appreciate the role that they will be playing within it. Volunteers learn how to casework with the homeless and low-income clients who utilize our services through trainings which emphasize a holistic approach towards providing health care to those who need it. Undergraduate students interested in volunteering with the Suitcase Clinic during the fall and spring semesters of the academic year must first enroll in Health and Medical Sciences 98/198, which combines community service with classroom learning.

Both this class and the Suitcase Clinic as a whole are intended for students with an interest in public health and social welfare, not those interested in receiving extensive clinical exposure in preparation for medical school. Students interested in working directly with the homeless population and providing health and social services to the underserved are our ideal applicants.

If you are interested in becoming involved with the Suitcase Clinic yet are unable to take HMS 98/198 during either the fall or the spring semester, or if you are not currently an undergraduate student enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, then you may participate in one of the two day-long training sessions held every summer on the first and fourth Saturday of June. These trainings address all of the fundamental elements covered in Health and Medical Sciences 98/198, including caseworking, security training, clinic policies and procedures.

The fundamental agents of the Suitcase Clinic are the undergraduate caseworkers. Their primary role is to serve as the indispensable advocates for our clients, seventy-percent of which are homeless. Caseworkers have different roles depending on which clinic they choose, but all caseworkers perform an initial social intake on clients. They interview clients concerning their current and past social situation and provide advocacy and referral information to help clients meet their needs. The caseworker leads clients through the various professional services offered at the clinics, serving as an advocate and a mediator. Caseworkers also provide follow-up and take an active interest in advocating for the client’s well being.

Caseworkers neither take medical histories nor perform any medical examinations or procedures. However, caseworkers work directly with health and social service professionals from a variety of fields, and have an opportunity to learn firsthand through this collaboration. The Suitcase Clinic is only one of many different organizations in the area that provide assistance to those in need. Caseworkers are encouraged to make referrals when they find that their clients need additional resources to those available at the Clinic.

Required resources:

1. Total project needs: $25,000

Project page URL:

• www.suitcaseclinic.org

Links to external blogs or wikis:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suitcase_Clinic