About Us - White Bird Clinic

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What We Do

Mission: White Bird is a collective environment organized to enable people to gain control of their social, emotional, and physical well-being through direct service, education, and community.
Vision: White Bird Clinic provides compassionate, humanistic healthcare, and supportive services to individuals in our community, so everyone receives the care they need.
Values: White Bird Clinic’s core values are compassion, client-centered care, community focus, individual empowerment, and service accessibility.

Crisis Response

In times of crisis, White Bird is a key agency in the continuum of care for our community. We are Lane County’s Crisis Intervention Service. We are CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) the Mobile Crisis and Medic response team for Eugene-Springfield’s Public Safety System. We are a member of Lane County Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD).

Community Health Response

White Bird Clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center that receives funds from the HRSA Health Center Program to provide primary care services in underserved areas. We operate a

Medical Clinic out of our office at 1400 Mill Street,
Dental Clinic at our office at 1415 Pearl Street,
Drug and Alcohol Treatment Program at our office at 350 E. 11th,
Counseling and Crisis intervention services from our office at 990 W. 7th Ave,
Front Rooms, Counseling and Navigation Empowerment Services Team (NEST) at 341 E. 12th Avenue and at 323 E. 12th Ave, and
CAHOOTS Mobile Crisis intervention program for Eugene and Springfield.

Our priority is to serve people who are unserved, underinsured, disabled and/or homeless.

Learn how White Bird Clinic is innovating in response to the shifting needs of our community during COVID-19 and offering humanistic healthcare and supportive services via phone and videoconference in this Oregon Primary Care Association article.

Humanistic Healthcare and Supportive Services

History

In 1969, a group of medical workers, university graduate students, energetic counter-culture members and other concerned citizens gathered to explore ways to respond to some of the fallout of the 1960s, which included a growing number of youth and young adults who felt alienated and disenfranchised from the mainstream system. Many were runaways and living on the streets, and were not likely to access the usual services available despite their needs, among which were medical, legal, mental health and substance use. [See “Healing House: The Colorful History of White Bird Clinic” for more details]

Out of this effort came White Bird Socio-medical Aid Station (later White Bird Clinic), incorporated in February 1970 as a 501(c)3 non-profit agency. With the help of many volunteers, the group was able to rent a house, staff it 24/7, train folks in crisis intervention, hold medical clinics with doctors and nurses, offer legal advice with lawyers and paralegals, and guide drug experiences in a safe and supportive way. Word quickly spread that this was a place with caring and helpful people who didn’t ask for money and who didn’t judge or lecture.

What began as a grassroots effort evolved over time from being an experiment to a key agency in the community continuum of care, becoming credible to the larger community and finding funding from various sources including federal, state and local governments and foundations.

White Bird continues to utilize volunteers in all of our programs and provides a number of trainings each quarter to bring them in and teach them how to help us do the work that we do.

We are committed to being of service to the community and the clients we serve and we share a hope for a better world – we take pride in doing our part!