Our quest for community runs deep. But what defines community? Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck calls true community "the process of deep respect and true listening for the needs of the other people . . . [which] reflects a deep yearning in every human soul for compassionate understanding from one's fellows."

America's top nursing and medical schools can be very proud of producing some of the finest clinicians in the world. But even the best health care training will betray itself if it is not firmly rooted in those precepts of compassion and a sense of duty to others.

It is a point of institutional pride that so many students joining Yale's health care community arrive already well equipped with these sterling qualities. Still, as they say, it ain't what you've got, it's what you do with what you've got that really matters. There will always be people who glance at a problem from afar and mutter, "Something should be done." But then there are those remarkable people who see a problem and run toward it declaring, "I must do something."

And this is where our story begins . . .

Once upon a time in the spring of 2004, a coalition of students from Yale University's Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, and the Physician Associate Program, found themselves reflecting on the ethical idea that the pursuit of higher education brings with it a responsibility to apply it to some higher purpose. Forging an unusual bond across their various disciplines, they went in search of a meaningful way to coalesce their respective skills and knowledge so that Yale's medical community could reach out to the neighborhood beyond its labs and lecture halls. The idea was to discover some of the unmet health care needs in New Haven's population. They didn't have to look very far.

The students soon uncovered a very real health care crisis; their community was teeming with unseen illness, disease, need, and despair. An alarming number of invisible New HAVEN residents—an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 low-income, undocumented, mostly Latino, immigrant workers—were living without access to crucial medical care.

It quickly became obvious to the student clinicians that, given the lack of free health care in the area, what this segment of the community urgently needed was a viable yet discrete way to address their basic needs. After drafting a thoughtful, detailed, and professional business plan, the HAVEN Free Clinic was born.

HAVEN's acronymous name prioritizes the clinic's goals and concerns: Healthcare, Advocacy, Volunteerism, Education, and Neighborhood. HAVEN's mantra, "Health care is a right, not a privilege," honors the humanistic battle cry of Dr. David E. Smith, who, in 1967, founded the country's first free medical clinic, San Francisco's Haight Asbury Free Clinic.

In 2005, HAVEN partnered with the Fair HAVEN Community Health Center (FHCHC), a registered community health center that first opened its doors in 1971. HAVEN shares FHCHC's building and operates under FHCHC's license.

Christina Fleming '10, the first YSN student to become one of HAVEN's co-directors, describes the clinic's original twofold mission with unbridled enthusiasm: first, to become a sustainable, student-run facility providing underserved, uninsured Fair HAVEN residents with access to excellent quality, free, comprehensive primary medical care, counseling, referrals, and education. "We're really an entryway into the health care system for people who wouldn't otherwise have access to it." Fleming explains, "This community of undocumented immigrants naturally has a huge amount of fear about accessing public resources."

To this end, in addition to providing primary medical care, HAVEN offers a wide range of social services in the form of help with eligibility screening for Title 19 and other federal, state, and medical debt relief. HAVEN provides referrals for domestic violence and financial counseling; connections to other community-based services providing food, housing, and safety; and in-clinic social support groups, like HAVEN's newest initiative—the Women's Health Education Group. Spanish translators are always present to ensure clear two-way communication with the clients.

One of the things HAVEN is proudest of is the fact that they have recently been able to organize two surgeries at no cost to either patient, both of which involved the difficult coordination of 15 different departments, not to mention convincing the hospital to waive or forgive the facilities costs and surgical team fees.

HAVEN's second, and equally important, mission is to offer the clinic's student staff a unique arena for professional development and close interaction with students from Yale's other schools—as well as the chance to experience the real-world challenges of managing patient care with curtailed resources.

Erin Loskutoff '09, a third-year YSN student and former co-coordinator of HAVEN Free Clinic's Social Services department, admits the work at HAVEN can be tough at times. "No one can escape the periodic distress that working with underserved, circumstance-manipulated people in desperate situations can cause. I sometimes feel overwhelming frustration and bewilderment about ‘why things are the way they are' for so many people. Yet the deeply grateful clients and my amazing colleagues inspire and encourage me to continue in the struggle—all of us together."

In that same spirit, Fleming says that, despite being immersed in the hard work of running HAVEN, it's important for the staff, as clinicians and administrators, to never become disconnected from the people they serve, and to stay mindful of the individual behind the patient chart. Loskutoff adds, "The struggles our clients have endured before coming to the USA, while en route to the USA, and after arriving in the USA, are absolutely heart-wrenching."

At first glance, it seems only natural that the HAVEN Free Clinic logo bears the image of a broad, flourishing elm tree. After all, New HAVEN is "The Elm City." But there's more to it than that.

Springing from a rich soil of dedicated, compassionate student administrators, clinicians, volunteers, specialists, and the many other civic-minded contributors, Yale's HAVEN Free Clinic itself stands as a judicious reminder of what every community, medical or otherwise, should endeavor to become--a strong, flexible, deeply rooted, living organism, with outstretched limbs sheltering those in need of a respite, and encouraging every leaf attached to it to grow and thrive.

As the HAVEN Free Clinic has shown, when trained clinicians harness their power, they can transform human lives. After all, what is the point of our knowledge if it is not used to make life less difficult for others?

For more information on how you can support the efforts of the HAVEN Free Clinic, visit http://freeclinic.med.yale.edu.

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