Community Volunteers in Medicine

West Chester, Pa.
Grant Amount: $25,000

Founded in 1997, Community Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM) was the first community-based volunteer organization of its kind in southeastern Pennsylvania. To be financially eligible, clients must be working, their incomes may not exceed 300 percent of the federal poverty level guidelines, nor may they be eligible for Medical Assistance, CHIP, VA Benefits, or Medicare. Last year, 200 volunteers, including 33 physicians, provided 10,500 patient visits. In addition, the in-house drug dispensary filled 15,000 prescriptions totaling more than $750,000, largely with drugs donated from 43 pharmaceutical companies.

CVIM received a grant of $25,000 for their Women's Health Care Program. They are targeting low-income, uninsured women, primarily of child-bearing age, most of whom are working and many of whom are single, heads of households with dependent children. Sixty-eight percent are Latina for whom Spanish is their primary language and more than half of these women are recent immigrants.

The Women's Health Care Program aims to provide pap smears to these women (approximately 300 women per year), encourage annual pap smears for all women patients, provide HPV vaccines (for women between 19 and 26 years of age) and tests for those with suspected problems and enable health care providers to refer patients for tests as necessary, rather than delaying referrals until funds are raised. Other goals include reinforcing the climate of their women's health care center to encourage health, prevention, and health maintenance with female patients, volunteer and paid practitioners, and providing bone density scans to women over 50 every 2-3 years.