Background Statement
Alicia Sanchez always had a huge heart. Back before the LafayetteLouisville area had hundreds of doctors and a 99-bed hospital, back when the area was dotted with commercial farms that hired dozens of Spanish-speaking migrant workers, Alicia was known as "la medica." People turned to her when they were sick or hurt and had no money. And despite being a single mother, she always had time to help someone else. Every week, she loaded her car "Susie" with the area's poor and drove to University Hospital in Denver so people could get low-cost care. She spent days waiting with them, translating and helping them understand test results. She knew that Lafayette and Louisville desperately needed affordable primary health care.
Through a true grassroots effort, Alicia, along with community leaders and health care providers, started Clinica in 1977. The first Clinica office was in a 500-square-foot house in Lafayette. The master bedroom was divided into two exam rooms. The living room served as waiting room, check-in and medical records. The kitchen served as the clinic's lab, complete with a chicken egg incubator in one corner that grew throat cultures. That first annual budget of $75,000 allowed Clinica to provided care to several hundred migrant farm workers and low-income locals.
Today, the organization has a $73 million operating budget and about 600 employees. Our one site has grown into eight medical and three dental clinics. Even though our organization has grown substantially, our mission has not changed: Clinica exists to provide affordable, high-quality health care to low-income, uninsured and unemployed people of all ages and all walks of life. Our ultimate goal in doing this is to help people live as healthy, productive, self-sufficient and pain-free lives as possible.