OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
We have learned alongside our Community Partners as they have faced challenges, overcome barriers, and achieved extraordinary successes. Find out more about each project and the outcomes below.
YEAR
2013
GRANT CATEGORY
Health & Well-Being
GRANT AMOUNT
$101,000
Organization:
Manos de Cristo
Project Title:
Grow the Clinic
Project Description:
Manos de Cristo empowers low-income individuals with a loving hand of assistance and welcomes all regardless of age, gender, race, or religious preference. Manos promotes dignity and self-reliance by providing essential oral care, furthering educational development, and meeting basic needs with food and clothing. In operation for 25 years, the Manos de Cristo clinic is currently the only low-fee, comprehensive, non-profit dental service provider in Austin providing high-quality care to low-income adults and children in need.
The aging dental clinic located in East Austin is being relocated to a larger and newly renovated North Central location that will allow the clinic to grow from serving 4,200 to serving 11,000 patients per year. The "Grow the Clinic" project will fund the purchase of three new and complete dental chair systems to service underprivileged patients at the new dental clinic location for decades to come.
Grant Status:
The new dental clinic opened on November 21, 2013, with Manos de Cristo reporting that it was able to serve twice as many patients in January and February of 2014 as in the previous year’s first two months.
Thanks to Impact Austin’s funding, the organization has been able to increase its potential capacity to serve 3,000 low-income, working poor patients each year. Additionally, the newer, more aesthetically pleasing environment aligns with the organization’s efforts to provide services with dignity.
During the course of the project, Manos de Cristo received free consultative services from Ana Salas-Porras, who has a specialty in improving operational efficiencies of similar dental practices. Additionally, St. David’s Foundation has offered not only funding, but also guidance to Manos de Cristo as an experienced provider of dental services. Lastly, Manos de Cristo and People’s Community Clinic (PCC) signed a memorandum of understanding for PCC to provide referrals beginning in the fall of 2014.