Venice Family Clinic Street Medicine Expanding In South Bay

REDONDO BEACH, CA — The Venice Family Clinic is developing plans to expand its street medicine program in the South Bay, the organization announced.

The street medicine team helps provide health care to people without a home. The organization offers clinical sites, works with medical providers and psychiatrists and community partners.

The main goal is to provide care and help get people safely housed and off the streets, the organization said.

"In 2021, Venice Family Clinic expanded its pioneering street medicine program with the addition of a mobile clinic van that transformed the care it provides to families and individuals experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing their homes," the organization said in a statement. "It also entered into a new partnership with St. Margaret’s Center, providing primary care at the community drop-in center in Inglewood. The Clinic is developing plans to expand its street medicine program to the South Bay in 2022."

In 2021, the organization delivered more than 28,000 COVID-19 vaccines, focusing on Latinx and other communities that have had the highest infection rates and lowest vaccination rates.

Food insecurity has also been a primary focus in the last two years of the pandemic.

"Recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated food insecurity among its patients and community members, the Clinic expanded its food distribution programs over the past two years, in partnership with Food Forward and Westside Food Bank," the organization said. "It distributed food to an average of nearly 1,500 families per week."

In November, Venice Family Clinic and South Bay Family Health Care, which have together provided more than a century of health care to Los Angeles County residents in need, announced they were merging.

Now, the organizations have moved forward as a single organization, expanding care to people in need from the Santa Monica Mountains to the South Bay. The merger aims to combat public health crises and improve access to care.

Operating under the name of Venice Family Clinic, the nonprofit community health center is expanding the scope and comprehensiveness of its services to the 45,000 patients the two organizations serve.

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