Where Hope is not just a name, but a mission

Being one-of-a-kind is the goal with consumerism, but when it comes to services that emulate Jesus, it’s just the opposite: they invite “competition.”

Hope Clinic in Ypsilanti, MI, is one of a kind, but clinic CEO Rev. Douglas Campbell would love to have imitators. “It is the only free clinic that we are aware of serving the whole person: physical, behavioral, psychological, and spiritual,” he said.

The clinic is able to give freely and fully, even offering prayer with its patients, without outside hindrances because they take no government money. The clinic’s mission statement is: “We partner with you to make lives better, serving the whole person with integrated and free: medical, dental, food, behavioral health; in Jesus’ name.”

“It’s the last part of our mission that makes the difference,” explained Campbell, a Presbyterian minister. “It’s all in Jesus’ name that we serve. Hope isn’t just part of our name; it’s our mission.”

ONE MAN’S DREAM

Rick and Debby Hendricks are members of Legatus’ Ann Arbor Chapter. Rick, a CPA who recently retired from a regional accounting and wealth management firm, is vice chairman of Hope Clinic’s board of directors. Hendricks knew Dr. Daniel Heffernan, who began the clinic 40 years ago.

“Dr. Dan was a friend and my personal doctor before he ever started this,” Hendricks said. “He used to run the idea by me. We were both members of Christ the King Church in Ann Arbor. He started a weekly clinic in 1982 at a local elementary school and brought his doctor’s bag with him. No one showed up the first day, but it grew from there.”

According to Hendricks, Hope Clinic is primarily driven by volunteers—over 1,200 of them—including dentists and assistants, doctors, nurses, social workers, and other professionals and non-professionals.

Heffernan died in 2018, but what he began grew into Hope Clinic, serving over 70,000 requests for help in 2021. It operates in a 28,000-squarefoot building in Ypsilanti and has a satellite in Westland, a city 16 miles west of downtown Detroit.

Hendricks explained that serving the poor was only part of Heffernan’s mission. “It started with medical care, but it also became an avenue for others to live out Christ’s mission,” he said. Volunteers come from many different faith backgrounds—and even include people of no faith — and entire churches get involved in Hope Clinic as an opportunity for their congregations to serve as Christ did.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF CLINIC

According to Campbell, Hope Clinic is consistently ranked by Charity Navigator in the top 1 percent of charities in Michigan, based on financial health, transparency, and accountability. For the medical clinic, there is only one paid 12-hour-a-week physician and over 350 partnerships including:

• University of Michigan Dental School, which sends dental and hygiene students on rotation;
• Hospitals providing free lab work and basic radiology;
• Integrated Healthcare Association, a multi-specialty medical group.

Campbell noted that they need not worry about geographic boundaries when taking in patients since they do not accept government money. “Our question is: ‘Do you need help?’” he said.

Medical clinic services help people uninsured or underinsured, and the dental clinic cares for people below double the poverty line, which is $12,880. In addition, they help people navigate the complex world of social services and offer many of the comprehensive services they need directly on site. Campbell noted, for example, that recently they helped a veteran get set up at the veteran’s clinic.

“We also offer prayer to our clients,” Campbell said. “There are many stories of breakthroughs. Volunteers offer to pray with a person if they would like. Sometimes we get an atheist who will say, ‘Okay. It can’t hurt.’ One man with many hardships who was offered prayer was uncontrollably crying. It’s powerful to hear that there is hope.”

One of the clinic’s values centers around the Zulu greeting Sawubona, which means “I see you,” Campbell noted. “We walk around and ask, ‘How are you?’ Then, we take the time to listen.”

Is there a concern of getting taken advantage of? “We are a high-trust organization. I’d rather err on the side of someone getting help rather than risk someone needing help and not getting it,” Campbell said. “We meet people where they are, and then take the next step.”

He explained that therapists help people address issues where people get stuck in negative behaviors. “A third of people are short term, a third for a season, and one-third longer term often because of mental health issues,” Campbell said.

The philosophy is to give people dignity while helping them get back on their feet.

A LABOR OF VOLUNTEER LOVE

Hope Clinic also offers laundry services, meals six days a week, and 3,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables donated each week from the Food Pantry. “We are a pantry of choice, within limits,” Campbell said. “Someone from the Middle East is not necessarily going to like peanut butter.”

Hope Clinic runs on a budget of $3.2 million coming from church partners, individuals, and family foundations. Right now, they are in the midst of a campaign to raise $5.5 million to expand their services. “We believe that God works in people’s hearts to donate,” Campbell said.

Their website states that their work “would not be possible without our incredible network of donors, volunteers, and community partners who leverage the maximum help for our clients, given freely, without strings, in Jesus’ name.”

Rick Hendricks finds great satisfaction in assisting with Hope Clinic’s outreach and hopes more will do the same.

“We want to invite people into the mission,” Hendricks said. “It is such a joy to serve. God has given us His grace, and we want to extend that to others. It’s so exciting to see people who want to share their gifts.

“Dr. Dan’s vision for this was a volunteer-driven organization to give people the chance to be hands on; that’s why it’s been successful,” he explained. “Sending checks is only a part of the mission. I feel privileged to get in the middle of this and see that this is Christ in action.” For more information about Hope Clinic, visit thehopeclinic.org.

PATTI ARMSTRONG is a Legatus magazine contributing writer.