On Sunday, December 5th, the Suitcase Clinic will be holding its 3rd
annual Benefit Concert. Join us by coming to an enjoyable show featuring
student groups, community members and clients! There will also be
exciting and valuable items raffled and auctioned before and during the
show in the lobby! The proceeds from this event will go directly toward
sustaining our clinics and providing free health and social services to
our homeless and low-income clients.

Date: Sunday, December 5th

Time: 7PM (doors open at 6:30PM)

Location: 155 Dwinelle, U.C. Berkeley campus

Tickets: $8 (pre-sale) or $10 (at the door)

Tickets are available this week on Sproul, November 29th through December 3rd!

Come see your favorite groups perform, featuring… U.C. Men’s Octet, Main
Stacks, Cal Breakers, Cal Slam, Decadence, Dil Se, Cal Hawaii and more!

Hope to see you there!

Hello Suitcasers,

For those of you interested in running for officer positions, the PC application can be found below. Please make sure you meet the eligibility requirements and submit your applications by Sunday, December 5th no later than midnight. Send all applications in a Word attachment to admin@suitcaseclinic.org. Thanks and good luck to everyone!

PC officer application

Join us on September 28th for the celebration of General Clinic's 20th birthday!

On September 25th, 1990, the General Clinic opened its doors for the very first time. Nearly two decades later we’re still going strong, and so we’re going to celebrate our twentieth “birthday” on Tuesday, September 28th.

The celebration is 80s themed, and will feature 80s music as well as volunteers dressed up as if we turned back the clock to when the Suitcase Clinic first started back in 1989 prior to General Clinic’s opening. There will be plenty of decorations, food, and cake!

Additionally, we’ll create a time capsule with items from today for future generations of Suitcase Clinic volunteers and clients. If possible, please bring an item that reflects fond memories of the Suitcase Clinic.

Whether you’re a client, volunteer, or an alumni member of the Suitcase Clinic, you won’t want to miss this festive celebration!

Hope to see you there!

Thank you to everyone who applied for Health and Medical Sciences 98/198 for the Fall Semester of 2010. We received a tremendous response of submitted applications. Due to the limited number of openings within our class, and our policy against accepting auditors, we unfortunately could not accept all applicants.

We highly encourage you to reapply if you did not get into the class this semester. This can be done during the coming Spring semester of 2011 or you can take our summer training sessions offered during the first and fourth week of June. All applications were well received, but we are fundamentally restricted in how many students we can accept into our course due to our limited number of instructors and small groups.

We hope that you have a wonderful semester, and that you consider us again in the future. For related volunteer opportunities offered during this semester, consider looking into our “Challenging Poverty” seminar series where you can learn more about the issues of homelessness, housing, immigration, and poverty. Several similar organizations you may be interested in include the Berkeley Free Clinic, the Berkeley Food and Housing Project,
or the Berkeley LifeLong Clinic.

Please respond to suitcaseclass@gmail.com if you have any questions.

The Suitcase Clinic Class Coordinators

*** NOTE: Class Coordinators would like to clarify any potential confusion in the small group preference section in the application. Unity is the 8th small group. Please include unity in your preferences. ***

Prospective Suitcasers,

This semester’s updated application is now available Fall-2010-Suitcase-Class-Application. Remember to turn them in to 570 University Hall before 4PM on Wednesday, September 8. Additionally, you are required to go on at least one tour as part of your application.

Here are the tour times:

• Monday: Youth Clinic: 7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM -> Meet in front of the Recreational Sports Facility
• Monday: Women’s Clinic: 7:30PM, 8PM, 8:30PM -> Meet in front of the Recreational Sports Facility
• Tuesday: General Clinic: 7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM -> Meet at Sproul Fountain

Please direct all questions regarding the application process to suitcaseclass AT gmail.com

Thanks for your interest and patience!

UPDATE: Application is now available here

Suitcase Clinic is calling all majors to apply!

The Suitcase Clinic is a student group that operates three multi-disciplinary clinics each week and offers free services to the bay-area homeless and low income communities since 1989. The Suitcase Clinic offers health care, medicines, vision screening, wellness activities, legal advice, dinners, foot-washing and the services of a chiropractor, a hair stylist and massage therapist free to the public.

We are run on an all-volunteer basis by undergraduates, medical and optometry students, and volunteer professionals from a number of fields. Seventy percent of our clients are homeless. Our General Clinic runs every Tuesday night, and our Women’s and Youth Clinics run Monday nights.

What you can do as part of Suitcase Clinic:

• Give more than spare change to the homeless on the streets of Berkeley
• Gain exposure to law, public health, public policy, and social welfare
• Meet community leaders who work to alleviate poverty locally
• Advocate to end hunger and homelessness in sustainable ways

If you are interested in volunteering, we offer a 2 unit P/NP class though which you will receive training, as well as learn more about the homeless population and the problems they face. It is HMS 98/198 (Thursdays 5-7PM) and we meet starting Thursday, September 9th in 130 Wheeler.

If you are interested in learning more about applying, there are two info sessions: Thursday, September 2 from 5-7PM in 130 Wheeler, and Friday, September 3 from 5-7PM in 130 Wheeler.

Application Process:
1)      You must fill out an application which can be downloaded here

• Turn in applications to 570 University Hall by 4PM on Wednesday Sept 8, 2010
• You must complete at least one  tour of one of our clinics before you turn in your application. Thus, this means the earliest you should be turning in your application is Tuesday morning.

2)      Tours: You must attend at least one tour as part of your application

Tour times:

• Monday: Youth Clinic: 7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM -> Meet in front of the Recreational Sports Facility
• Monday: Women’s Clinic: 7:30PM, 8PM, 8:30PM -> Meet in front of the Recreational Sports Facility
• Tuesday: General Clinic:  7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM -> Meet at Sproul Fountain

3)      You will be notified about the status of your application on Wednesday, Sept. 8 by 10PM through phone call or email.

NOTE: If you have put yourself on the waitlist, please remove yourself. It will not grant you admission to the class.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to email: suitcaseclass@gmail.com

Thank you!
Class Coordinators

The Suitcase Clinic will be at this year’s Calapalooza!

Come find us on Sproul Plaza on Thursday, August 26th. Members of The Suitcase Clinic will be on hand from 5:30PM to 9:00PM to answer questions about our organization. Feel free to stop by our table to learn more about us and how you can become a part of the next generation of Suitcasers.

We hope to see you there!

UPDATE (6/16/10): Major Changes to Summer Training 2010

Dear Applicants,

Some changes have been made regarding this year’s summer training. Read on for the latest updates.

Training Update

1) The training dates have been adjusted. The first two days of training will now be June 26 and 27 (this is to better accommodate more students who aren’t available on June 19 because Summer Session C doesn’t start until June 21).

2) Part 2 of the training will still be on the same dates (July 17 and July 24).

Tour Update

1) Now that the tours are before the training, we hope that all of you who are interested attend our tours. These tours will help you decide whether or not you would be interested in some of the work we do on-site at the Suitcase Clinic. Please read the post below for more information on where to meet.

2) If you miss the tour you can still apply, and if you are accepted you can take a quick tour when you go shadow; however, going on the first tour is preferred.

Application Update

1) This scheduling change means that the application deadline will be extended until June 23rd at midnight!

2) You can still turn applications in to 570 University Hall to the Suitcase Clinic mailbox or email us at suitcaseclass@gmail.com

——————————

Dear Prospective Summer 2010 Volunteers!

Basic Information

1) There is only going to be ONE 4-day training this summer extended over the course of a month.

2) The training dates are June 26, June 27, July 17, and July 24. YOU MUST ATTEND ALL 4 DAYS!!! No exceptions!!! If you are unable to be in Berkeley during this entire month we suggest you apply during the Fall or Spring semesters. This is because in between June and July we will require you to go to clinic every week to shadow and casework, so you really just have to be in town Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday.

3) Each day will be a span of 6 hrs (10am-4pm) in which you will have 1 hr to have lunch.

4) There is going to be a class fee of $50. You must bring this on the 1^st day if you are accepted. Write a check out to ASUC – Suitcase Clinic. You can also bring cash but we prefer that you write a check. Your contribution will help keep our clinics open and services in place as well as pay for your reader.

Location

Day 1 (June 26): 70 Evans

Day 2 (June 27): TBD

Day 3 (July 17): 220 Wheeler

Day 4 (July 24): 220 Wheeler

What is Suitcase?

Suitcase Clinic is service-learning organization dedicated to training competent caseworkers who can staff the Suitcase Clinic’s three drop-in centers (Youth Clinic Monday nights, Women’s Clinic Monday nights, General Clinic Tuesday nights), empowering students who are passionate about ending homelessness, and exposing future leaders in medicine, law, social welfare, academia, or politics (that’s you!) to a philosophy of humanization, cooperative learning, and social justice. This however, is NOT A CLINICAL EXPERIENCE in terms of diagnosing, doing tests, or providing medical services. It is a clinical experience in terms of how you interact with clients. The work that you’ll be doing is mainly advocacy work and providing social services.

Training Details

Part 1: June 26 and 27

We will be training you on how to volunteer as caseworkers and learn the necessary skills to work in clinic. We will also go over the requirements. The following Monday and Tuesday we will be giving tours of the clinics. The second Monday and Tuesday you will be required to go shadow a current volunteer!

Part 2: July 17 and 24

We will be covering issues related to homelessness and learn/think about potential ways to advocate for our clients. Topics include healthcare, criminalizing homeless people, history of homelessness, housing, mental illness and substance abuse and more. There will be activities and hopefully some guest speakers.

Throughout this summer training we may have socials during the weekends in between to help you get to know other volunteers!

Application Process

There is going to be an application process this summer. Since we are reducing the number of trainings this summer you will all be required to fill out a brief application HERE. The application is due promptly at midnight on Wednesday, June 23. Send your applications to suitcaseclass@gmail.com. We will probably accept somewhere between 45-55 applicants. The application is in a word document so you may have to fuss around with the format when you type in your information. We apologize for this. If you would like to print out a copy and turn in a hand written version you must turn that in by 3:00pm to 570 University Hall on Wednesday, June 17. Ask the front desk lady (Denise) if you can go to the back and put the application into the Suitcase Clinic mailbox.

Tours Meeting Location

Everyone is welcome to attend and we hope that you do! This will help you decide whether or not you want to be part of the Suitcase Clinic and see a part of what we do on-site.

1) The Youth and Women’s tour will be on Monday (June 21st) at 7:00pm, 7:30, and 8pm. Meet in front of the RSF and sign in.

2) General Clinic will be on Tuesday (June 22nd) at 7:00 pm, 7:30pm, and 8pm. Meet in front of Sproul Fountain.

The Suitcase Clinic is pleased to announce the following items are up for auction at our first annual Benefit Dinner:

The Benefit Dinner is on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at the historic Hotel Shattuck Plaza in Downtown Berkeley. We would like to thank all of the organizations for generously donating the silent auction items!