New Generation Clinic to Co-Locate in Homeless Prenatal Program

The New Generation Health Center will continue to provide reproductive health care for teens and young adults through a new partnership that will enable it to co-locate in a safe, confidential and youth-friendly nonprofit across the street from its current location.

In an agreement among UC San Francisco, the San Francisco Department of Public Health, and the Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP), the health center will remain open at its current location at 625 Potrero Ave through September, during which time renovations will take place at HPP, allowing for the clinic to begin operating there this fall. The HPP space at 2500 18^th Street is a one-minute walk from the current location.

“Working together with the community, we have found a solution that preserves essential health services for youth, and expands access to reproductive health care for homeless women,” said Barbara Garcia, Director of Health. “This is a great outcome for our community and strengthens the collaboration between the City, UCSF and our nonprofit partners.”

“Over the past year, we have worked with dozens of members of our community, including other health providers, youth advocates, school district staff and students, to find a way to maintain these services into the future,” said UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS. “This collective hard work has led to a solution that no single institution could have achieved on its own.”

New Generation will be a joint venture between UCSF and DPH, housed at HPP and operating under a DPH license, with UCSF clinical staff providing care. The HPP board approved the new arrangement at its meeting last night.

“Since HPP moved to the neighborhood in 2005, New Gen has been a resource for our clients. We are thrilled to partner with UCSF and DPH to ensure that this resource remain for the youth in our city and the clients we serve,” said Martha Ryan, executive director of the Homeless Prenatal Program. “Our shared mission of empowering vulnerable members of our community to make informed decisions about their health and future is critical in helping them escape the cycle of poverty.”

The Health Department will pay clinical expenses, including staff, at approximately $722,000 annually, and UCSF will support the clinic’s ongoing operations, estimated at $213,000 per year. The estimated $700,000 in renovation and moving costs will be funded by philanthropic donations that have been raised in support of New Gen.

The clinic, which has provided reproductive health guidance and services for underserved San Francisco teens and young adults for nearly 20 years, had lost significant funding in recent years due to the changing health care landscape, as well as a decline in philanthropy, grants and patient numbers. It also faced substantial capital expenses to renovate its facility to meet both seismic and ADA codes. As a result, it faced potential closure last year. In response to community concerns about the closure, UCSF committed to funding the clinic’s operations through fiscal year 2017 and to work with DPH and the community to identify options for keeping the clinic open.

HPP has served 85,000 families since opening in 1989. HPP aims to break the cycle of poverty by offering a variety of free education, training and support services to homeless women and families.

The co-location of New Gen within HPP will advance both organizations’ missions, allowing New Gen patients to continue receiving health care and gain access to HPP’s services, while providing seamless family planning services to HPP clients.

As part of the partnership, Rebecca Jackson, MD, on behalf of UCSF, engaged in substantial fundraising with the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation and raised more than $1.3 million from a wide array of donors, of which $700,000 is devoted to the remodeling of HPP to create appropriate clinical space that will include an electronic health record.  The philanthropic dollars will also help support the clinic’s ongoing operations.

The funds raised include $500,000 from UCSF departments, as well as $350,000 from the Hewlett Foundation and substantial individual donations. UCSF faculty, alumni and trainees also donated more than $134,000. Local community members supported the effort through an independent crowd-funding campaign that raised an additional $22,000.

UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences; and a preeminent biomedical research enterprise. It also includes UCSF Health, which comprises three top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland, and other partner and affiliated hospitals and healthcare providers throughout the Bay Area.

About SF Department of Public Health: The mission of the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) is to protect and promote the health of all San Franciscans. SFDPH strives to achieve its mission through the work of two main Divisions – the San Francisco Health Network and the Population Health Division. The San Francisco Health Network is a community of top-rated clinics, hospitals and programs operated by the Health Department. Every year we serve more than 100,000 people in our clinics and hospital, such as Castro Mission, Chinatown and Southeast health centers, Zuckerberg San Francisco General and Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. With a broad community focus, the ultimate goal of the Population Health Division is to ensure that San Franciscans have optimal health and wellness at every stage of life. To achieve this, the Division is comprised of branches dedicated to core public health services, such as health protection and promotion, disease and injury prevention, disaster preparedness and response, and environmental health services.

About Homeless Prenatal Program: HPP is a nationally-recognized and award-winning family resource center in San Francisco that empowers low-income and homeless families, particularly mothers motivated by pregnancy and parenthood, to find within themselves the strength and confidence they need to transform their lives. The agency offers case management services, prenatal and parenting support, housing assistance, child welfare services (including parent/child reunification), domestic violence prevention and intervention, mental health services, job-training and the emergency support of basic needs. Over the years, the agency’s focus shifted from that of an agency devoted to the provision of prenatal care, to that of a family resource center with a broader mission – to break the cycle of childhood poverty. Today, supported by a staff of 80 and more than 200 volunteers, HPP has an operating budget of $6.8 million and provides critical, poverty-ending services to 4,000 low-income and homeless families a year.