Neighborhood Nonprofit Spotlight: Serena Cruz, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center

Patch talks to Serena Cruz about her work with the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.

Patch: Tell Patch a little about you and your organization!

Serena: The Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation exists to raise funds and cultivate support and understanding for the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.

Patch: How does your organization help to strengthen the local community?

Serena: The Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center that provides high quality, comprehensive and culturally appropriate health care in the communities of Washington and Yamhill Counties. We have a special emphasis on serving migrant and seasonal farmworks and others with barriers to care. No one is ever turned away for inability to pay. We served over 45,000 individual patients last year (that's one in every 15 county residents), we provide services in 62 different languages, and well over 90% of our patients are low-income.

Patch: When did you open?

Serena: 1975

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Patch: What is the biggest struggle your organization faces?

Serena: Growing fast enough to meet the demand for our services.

Patch: What do you hope for the future of your nonprofit?

Serena: The clinics of the future will be places where folks in our community can not only get access to high quality health care but also places where their choices to improve their health will be supported. For example, we have one Wellness Center in Cornelius and we're building another in Beaverton. Wellness Centers take a holistic look to health care by providing exercise and stress reduction classes, group health management of chronic diseases and pregnancy where patients develop social supports while getting their care and where our non-profit/educational partners join us in serving the community.

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Photo Credit: Serena Cruz