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Home > About Us > History

History

Hope Clinic was founded by Dr. Dan Heffernan as an expression of his Christian faith. His desire was to live out the Gospel Message of helping our brothers and sisters in need as well as to provide an avenue for other Christians to do so. From the start, Hope's goal was to minister to the spiritual as well as the physical needs of those served.

Dr. Dan's initial step was to open a Medical Clinic in 1982 to provide free health care to uninsured children and adults. With a small group of volunteers, he began a Saturday morning walk-in clinic that operated in borrowed space. Soon after the Medical Clinic started, some of the volunteers began bringing in food to give away to the Clinic patients. Realizing they were meeting a real need that our patients had, Hope established a Food Bank in 1984 that was operated out of volunteers' homes.

In 1987 Hope Clinic was incorporated and a board of directors was established. At the time there was a desire to expand the Medical Clinic services beyond the Saturday morning clinic. This would require us to have our own building. There was also a desire to address other unmet needs as resources were available to do so. With this in mind Cathy Robinson was hired in 1990 to serve as Executive Director, the first paid staff position.

One of the unmet needs in Ypsilanti that the new Board and Executive Director became aware of was the lack of a free meal served on the weekend. Hope began our Weekend Meal Program in May, 1991 to meet this need and have continued serving hot meals every Saturday and Sunday at the Ypsilanti Salvation Army building ever since.

In that same year Hope purchased a building at 9 S. Adams St. in Ypsilanti, believing it would become the new home of the Medical Clinic which was still meeting in borrowed space. As the development of the property proceeded it became clear that it was not a good fit for the needs of the Medical Clinic. At the same time, we had been seeking God about how to meet the Dental needs of our patients. He soon made it clear to those involved that this building was to house a Dental Clinic, which began operation in 1994.

All through 1991 God continued to speak to Hope about expanding our vision. As a result we moved our administrative offices and Food Bank to 518 Harriet which soon became known as Hope Center. As part of our expanded vision we began a program to allow low income families to do their laundry free of charge. The Wash With Care program became operational in 1992. We also began providing other social services from Hope Center, including an Emergency Financial Assistance program and a Care and Share Closet stocked with items that are not available with food stamps.

God continues to expand our vision at Hope. In 1993 we finally acquired a building at 103 Arnet in Ypsilanti to house the Medical Clinic and began a steady expansion of clinic operations. From that once per week clinic we have grown to have nine half day clinic sessions each week at our Ypsilanti clinic. We opened a satellite medical clinic in Chelsea in the fall of 2001 and in 2006 Hope received funding to establish a satellite clinic in Western Wayne County. From that humble handful of initial volunteers, we now utilize over 300 volunteers each month. We have grown from one Executive Director to a staff of 13 full time and 12 part time workers.

Dr. Dan's vision of serving "God's beloved poor" with a broad range of services has indeed become reality. As has his goal to provide an outlet for other Christians to give charitably of their time and resources.

".in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine you did it for me."
Matthew 25:40

» See our milestones for more information.

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