Free Clinic to Open at First Baptist January 2009

Free health clinic will open at First Baptist

MARK E. RONDEAU, Staff Writer

BENNINGTON - A free medical clinic will be opening in mid-January at the First Baptist Church building on Main Street.

The clinic will open by mid-January. Sue Andrews, manager of the Interfaith Council's Food and Fuel Fund, said that she and Dr. Richard Dundas, a longtime local physician who is retiring, began discussing the idea early this year.

The Interfaith Council voted in June to support and advance the concept.

The free clinic fits with First Baptist's desire to make full use of its sizable Main Street facility, which was built in 1965, when church membership was much larger, according to the Rev. Jerrod Hugenot, interim intentional minister at First Baptist. "When they were looking for facility space, they knew First Baptist was hoping to refurbish some of its space for community betterment," he said.

The clinic is intended to serve those without health insurance, an estimated 3,500 adults ages 18 to 64 in Bennington County. Children under 18 are covered by the state, and poor adults are covered by Medicaid.

However, those who fall into the category of the working poor - many ironically working in the health care field - cannot afford health insurance. Others may work part time or work for small employers who cannot afford to offer employees heath insurance. Even some of those who are not below the poverty level may not be able to buy into health insurance, Andrews said.  A benefit of the Main Street location is that many potential clients of the free clinic do not have vehicles and may be able to walk to the site.

To date, 28 local physicians have expressed interest in volunteering for the free clinic in some capacity, she said. As yet, Andrews has no official title with the clinic, describing herself jokingly as "chief cook and bottle washer."

She said that the intent is to show clients "radical hospitality," so in addition to taking care of health needs, the intent is to sign them up for aid programs they may not know they are eligible for, such as food stamps.

The not-for-profit clinic already is having success raising funds, with grants approved from the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, the Stratton Foundation and the Merchant's Bank Foundation. Other grants will be forthcoming, Andrews said. Donations from the public are also welcome, she added.

A missional vision

According to officials at First Baptist, the congregation has been looking at ways to make itself relevant to the times and use its large facility for community betterment. "Baptists are mission-minded people," Hugenot said. "It's just now we're realizing that the mission field is our backyard, not just far, far away."

The First Baptist facility is connected to the church and is formally known as the Nichols Christian Education Building.   "I think the vision of this was when they built the addition was 300 in church and 200 in Sunday school," Hugenot said while showing this reporter the building. "And that was the euphoria of mid-20th Century mainline Protestant Christendom. It's not to browbeat anybody, it was just nobody got the memo that within 10 years the decline would be on its way."  Today the congregation has 40 to 50 adult members and up to a dozen younger members, he said. Most of the space in the building is not used by the congregation. 

Discerning the church's mission in recent years, congregation members have quietly been taking steps to make the building more accessible and to reach out to the community. In addition to the room on the first floor being renovated for the free clinic exam room, the church has recently added an accessible bathroom and a lift making the second floor accessible to people with disabilities. A contract has been let out to install a new fire alarm system in the building over the winter.

Beyond this, the church has rented space out on the second floor to PAVE's Family Time program, which now meets there. Much additional space is available to be rented to other non-profits. The church will make no profit on the rentals and hopes to offer the spaces at below-market rates.   "What we're looking for here is long-term, sustainable use of the building that creates a kind of non-profit-friendly environment where folks can really flourish here, and the congregation can meet its basic needs to serve the community in a creative fashion," Hugenot said.

Another budding effort at the church is a sewing program started by a member of the congregation teaching low-income people sewing skills.

The church has long hosted two active AA groups and regularly hosted visits by the Red Cross Blood Mobile.

Greg Lewis, the church's moderator, said that between the time when the previous pastor left and the congregation hired Hugenot, church members took a vote to see what route it would take. They could either keep with the status quo or change to an outward-looking congregation. "So we decided to take the lead and become transformed," he said. "We're definitely moving forward, and it's become a missional church."

Wayne Kachmar is an engineer, businessman and a member of the church's trustee board. He has worked with other church members to produce a business plan for the building. "You've got to be realistic," he said. "You've got to think hard about how to do this." Though at times the building has been seen as a yoke around the congregation's neck, it has several things going for it. One is its location on Main Street; another is that it is made of concrete blocks - solid. Now, PAVE and the free clinic amount in a sense to "anchor stores in a charity mall," with the significant benefits for them of relatively low operations costs and easy access in the downtown.