Alliance Member Agencies - 45TH STREET HOMELESS YOUTH CLINIC

To provide personalized, quality and comprehensive physical and mental health care following a health care maintenance model to homeless youth, and youth at risk of homelessness.
To create a safe, supportive and sensitive environment for young people age twelve to twenty-three in which to deliver this care on a drop-in basis.
To encourage youth to make positive decisions in regards to their health, and assist them in developing ongoing relationships with formal systems and reconnect them to the community.

We do what we can to make our clinic safe and sensitive to the needs of homeless youth because most of our patients have had negative experiences with institutions and authority figures. We need to assure them that this is a safe place where they will be treated respectfully. We spend a lot of time trying to form relationships with our young patients so that they will trust us and return for further care.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
The 45th Street Homeless Youth Clinic (HYC) is an evening drop-in clinic for homeless and at-risk youth ages 12-23 years. They come from all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. The HYC operates from a harm reduction approach to provide youth-centered services including allopathic primary care, naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, dental care, mental health counseling, mental health counseling, outreach, resource referral, yoga, eligibility assistance, and HIV counseling.