General Info

The Suitcase Clinic is a humanitarian student organization and volunteer community offering free health and social services to underserved populations since 1989. Structured around the principles of public health, social welfare, community activism and empathy, the Suitcase Clinic currently operates three weekly multi-service drop-in centers in the city Berkeley: the General Clinic, the Women’s Clinic and the Youth Clinic. In addition to providing services, the Suitcase Clinic strives to educate students, promote health care access, engage in community organization, and support public policy efforts that address homelessness and the needs of the underserved in the local community.

The mission of the Suitcase Clinic is to promote the health and overall wellbeing of underserved individuals through service provision, cooperative learning, and collective action among community and professional volunteers, students, and participants.

We, community and professional volunteers, students, and participants …

  • Join together as a group of volunteers in a cooperative relationship with the community to serve as advocates for homeless people;
  • Provide continuous aid to the homeless and low-income groups, regardless of their ability to pay;
  • Help those who want help with health and social services, using our skills to make it possible for them to help themselves;
  • Provide assistance regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or lifestyle, not discriminating against anybody in need;
  • Recognize that health and well-being affect the spectrum of life;
  • Strive to make a long term difference through commitment;
  • Maintain this mission through constant reevaluation and effort to benefit homeless individuals in any way that we, as a group, are able.

We, community and professional volunteers, students, and participants, that support the mission of the Suitcase Clinic, believe …

  • In the dignity of all human beings, and hold that health care is a right of all persons, regardless of their ability to pay;
  • That health is a holistic state of complete physical, mental, emotional and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity;
  • Health promotion requires more than medical care and should include programs that address behavioral, social, and environmental issues that affect people’s quality of life;
  • That our projects should stem from the participants’ expressed needs and desires, rather than from providers’ beliefs about participants’ needs. We value the principle of “starting where people are;”
  • That our projects should strive to be proactive rather than reactive by responding to the concerns of all homeless and low-income persons and not just those who come to us, utilizing individual’s strengths and resources rather than simply focusing on his or her needs, and advocating for public policies that address long-term concerns in addition to immediate needs;
  • That empowerment involves cooperative learning, which encourages personal reflection, and a volunteer environment that fosters personal growth through the sharing of ideas, resources, and support;
  • That the educational experience of volunteers should not supersede the service provision to participants;
  • That our projects and provided services should be culturally appropriate and accessible;
  • That we should maintain an informal environment that fosters teamwork and community building.

In the summer of 1989, a group of first year University of California, Berkeley – University of California, San Francisco Joint Medical Program students discussed the idea of developing a program to address the unmet needs of the city of Berkeley’s homeless and low-income population. This group further developed their ideas in the following fall semester’s Health Policy course. They envisioned a program that would provide needed, specialized, and appropriate services to a population which typically received inadequate health care. As a first step in the development of their idea, the students conducted a community needs assessment.

They met with homeless individuals on the street, community-based organizations such as the Berkeley Food and Housing Project, and medical clinics such as the Berkeley Free Clinic. Through their outreach efforts, the students tried to gain a better understanding of the available services and service gaps. The students concluded that many of the homeless did not utilize existing social and medical services because many of the services were inaccessible.

Based on their assessment, the students conceived of a mobile clinic that would travel directly to clients and provide services. Medical and other supplies were carried in suitcases, hence the name “The Suitcase Clinic.” A van was donated to the project, but when the van broke down due to brake failure, the student volunteers had to reevaluate their plans.

The students realized that their clients needed more than just medical care; the needs of the homeless and low-income population went beyond just the medications needed for their current illness. With the belief that health is a state of complete physical, mental, emotional social well-being, not merely the absence of disease and infirmity, the students conceived the idea of a clinic that would provide more than just medical services.

The clinic organizers worked with the Berkeley Food and Housing Project and First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, deciding to hold the now stationary Suitcase Clinic on Tuesday nights in conjunction with the Berkeley Food and Housing Project’s evening drop-in center at the church. Along with the UCB – UCSF Joint Medical Program students, undergraduate students played an integral role in the development of the Suitcase Clinic, and are now the agents primarily responsible for its continuing operation.

The undergraduate students developed a semester-long UC Berkeley course associated with the Suitcase Clinic and run through the Anthropology Department, which is now sponsored by the Health and Medical Sciences Division in the School of Public Health. The course was designed to raise student awareness, increase student recruitment, and to also train new volunteers. Undergraduates also coordinate the Suitcase Clinic’s various divisions, help raise the necessary funds for operation, conduct evaluations, and oversee all other aspects.

The Suitcase Clinic opened its doors on September 25th, 1990. Its organizers had two primary goals:

  1. To provide a multidisciplinary clinic in which the homeless could receive a wide range of services including medical care, chiropractic services, legal advice, optometry and haircuts.
  2. To provide a community service arena where all providers would cooperate in fulfilling all of the service requirements of the population. A corollary goal has been to provide a learning experience and opportunity for medical, optometry, graduate, and undergraduate students. Through the case-working model all participants are exposed to a radically different system, which attempts to break down standard social relations.

© 1989-2010 The Suitcase Clinic All rights in and to the foregoing are reserved throughout the world.