Centre Volunteers in Medicine gets another big boost for its new building. What’s next?
Centre Volunteers in Medicine will receive another financial boost from the state to help complete renovations to its new building.
During Tuesday’s Centre County board of commissioners meeting, the board approved CVIM’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Project in the amount of $3 million. CVIM’s match will be $3.14 million for a total project cost of just over $6 million.
The money comes from state funding, however a cooperation agreement between CVIM and the Centre County government allows the county to act as a passthrough so CVIM can receive the funds. The county will also help with the administration.
Cheryl White, CVIM’s executive director, gave the board an update on the nonprofit’s future home. The building at 2026 Sandy Drive in State College has already been purchased and is currently under construction, she said.
“It will allow us to expand from our current 6,700 square foot space to almost double that once the addition and renovation are completed,” White said. “...I really appreciate this opportunity from the state and the county for helping us get this money.”
White hopes the construction will be done by late spring 2023.
The clinic’s website states the limitation of space at the old space “hindered CVIM from increasing our volume of patient care in line with need, growing education and wellness programming, starting new programs and bringing additional volunteers on board.”
“I don’t think there will ever be a time, at least not in our lifetime, that there’s not a need for free care for the working poor who can’t afford insurance (and) don’t qualify for medical assistance.”
White said CVIM’s dental program has a waitlist of 400 people, but it’s “being chipped away” by its new full-time dentist, funded through a grant from the state Department of Health. The new building will also allow the dental program to grow from four working stations to six.
CVIM also integrates behavioral health into primary care but doesn’t have a dedicated space for that program. In the new building, it’ll have its own space and a room for group counseling in the new building, she said.
CVIM is the only free clinic in Centre County and provides medical, dental, behavioral health, case management and prescription services to low-income and uninsured individuals.
“As a true free clinic, we have no regular source of income. We don’t charge for the services we apply. … We are truly blessed by the community that supports us,” White said, noting that CVIM’s general fundraising is ongoing and separate from its capital campaign for the building.
Almost 200 volunteers work in the regular clinic on an annual basis. They do anything from seeing patients to taking out the recycling, White said.
“That’s the beauty of the volunteer clinic is that we’re able to take those dollars that people donate and multiply it by three as far as the health care that we provide, because … for the most part, we’re not paying the professional staff,” she said.
