Every other Monday night, the basement of the Jefferson Avenue Methodist Church in Washington, Pa. is turned into a soup kitchen and a doctor's office. It’s called the “WeCare Street Outreach,” and it's run by Dr. Monica Speicher.
It began in 2009, when it was suggested that Washington County needed a program similar to the one run by Pittsburgh doctor Jim Withers, who is known for his medical outreach to the homeless.
“I have to say, I honestly did not think that there were people living on the streets in Washington, because when you drive through this town, you don’t see homeless on every corner, and you don’t see people begging for money. So, I was skeptical,” Speicher said.
Outreach organizers found there were homeless who needed care, but also quickly figured out that they are not always easy to find. So, they established an indoor clinic that was open every other week.
“Word has gotten around, and people know that if they need to see a doctor, if they want a hot meal, if they need warm clothing, that they can come in here and usually get help,” Speicher said.
Norman Threatt has visited the WeCare program for five years.
“I started coming in for the food and the clothing,” Threatt said.
This winter volunteers at the program we able to get Threatt into housing. He said it made a big difference in his health.
“I would have frost bite around my face by now,” he said. Threatt also gets treatment for diabetes, which he has had most of his life.
The medical clinic is little more than a pair of folding tables, a few chairs and several boxes of medical supplies. The entire operation is funded through grants, donations of medical supplies from local businesses and cash from the local community.
According to Speicher, the clinic sees five to 10 medical patients and feeds 20 to 40 people each week its are open. Some come back often enough that Speicher and her team take blood and send it off to the Washington Health System lab to be tested for free, then share the results about two weeks later.
“Being a physician and dealing with all the administrative things that we have to deal with … sometimes the actual patient care and how you can make a difference can get lost,” Speicher said. “This is a really simple way for me to feel like going to medical school was worth it.