What is a Free Clinic?
A Free Clinic is a private, nonprofit, community-based or faith-based organization that provides compassionate, quality health care at little or no charge to low-income, uninsured people through heavy use of volunteer health professionals and partnerships with other health-related organizations.

Why Does VAFC Exist?
Every industry or group of organizations with similar interests does well to have an association to represent and promote them.  That is what VAFC does for Virginia’s Free Clinics.  The mission of the VAFC is to support, strengthen, and advocate for Free Clinics to deliver quality health care to Virginia’s low-income, uninsured and underinsured residents.

Free Clinics Impact the Community in Many Ways

Medical Care
In 2005, Free Clinics provided 128,243 general medical visits worth $10.8 million, and 39,016 specialty medical visits worth $7.3 million.

Prescription Medications
In 2005, Free Clinics provided 601,734 prescription medications worth $40.1 million to their patients.  Medicines donated by pharmaceutical manufacturers accounted for approximately 95% of this total.

Dental Care
33 Virginia Free Clinics currently provide dental care. A total of 23,351 dental visits worth $4.9 million were provided in 2005.

Hospital/Lab Support
Hospitals and lab companies contributed nearly $21 million of in-kind services to Free Clinic patients in 2005.

Mental Health Counseling
In 2005, 25 Free Clinics provided 7,720 counseling visits worth nearly $777,000.

Our 48 clinics and over 9,200 volunteers made a big difference in the lives of their patients for medical, dental and mental health care. And we do it efficiently. For every one dollar spent, Free Clinics provided access to $5.40 in heatlhcare services for our patients. This strong ratio is due to Free Clinics’ extraordinary ability to leverage the volunteer and charitable capacity of the health system.

Learn more about volunteer opportunties >

Free Clinics funding comes mostly from the private sector. More than 75% of the funding comes from private sources like The United Way, local businesses, foundations, religious organizations, civic organizations and individuals.