WEST SIDE COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER:

West Side Community Health Center (WSCHC) was founded in 1972 as a non-profit corporation to provide access to comprehensive, high quality, affordable health care services delivered by bilingual/bicultural staff to residents of St. Paul's West Side Community, especially its large Latino population and its low-income residents, and to advocate for improved community health care services. It was managed by a volunteer, community-based board of directors and received both public and private funding.

The Center's origins go back to 1968-1969, when West Side residents and community groups opened the free, bilingual/bicultural People's Health Center, staffed by volunteers, in the basement of St. Michael's Church to serve the neighborhood's large number of Mexican immigrants and native-born Mexican Americans, as well as those with low incomes. The clinic was relocated (in 1969) to a storefront building at 412 Robert Street South, where it operated until May 1972. In November 1972 the clinic reopened as the West Side Community Health Center/La Clinica at Neighborhood House, a multi-service community center (founded 1879) at 179 Robie Street East. It remained there until 1983, when it moved to its newly constructed facility at 153 Concord Street.

Over the years the Center broadened and expanded its programs and services, not only within the West Side Community but also to other areas of St. Paul, to include dental and perinatal services; services for the homeless and public housing residents; HIV/AIDS and diabetes prevention, education, and counseling programs; and comprehensive bilingual/bicultural services for the city's Hmong population. It also partnered with other organizations to provide services, address community health care issues, and advocate for public policies that would enable better access to high quality, affordable, culturally sensitive health care and other needed services.

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The collection consists of records documenting the history, administration, services, and programs of the West Side Community Health Center, including historical information; articles of incorporation, bylaws, and other legal documents; correspondence; financial records; annual reports; brochures; annual meeting and board of directors' minutes; board committee files; clinic services and procedures manuals; and photographs.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. West Side Community Health Center Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,934

Processing Information:

Processed by: Deborah Kahn, January 2007

Catalog ID number: 990063285060104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Clinics -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Medical care -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Hispanic Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Latin Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Mexican Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Mexicans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Hmong Americans -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Hmong (Asian people) -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Immigrants -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Urban poor -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Organizations:

La Clinica (Saint Paul, Minn.).

People's Health Center (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Places:

West Side Community (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Document Types:

Photographs.

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