TEMPLE, Texas — Leaders at the Temple Community Clinic will break ground on a second free health clinic at 1:00 p.m. Thursday.
The new clinic will be located at 31st St. and Avenue J., on the main bus route for those who use public transportation, but it won't officially open for another year.
Leaders who started the clinic in 1992 said the dream of opening another location has been there since the beginning.
"We want to be here for another 30 years," Board president for Temple Community Clinic, Jarry Haisler, said. "So we continue to look at how the Temple Community Clinic can have a sustaining impact on the community."
The new clinic will put a large focus on mental health services, provide a community room, and individual exam rooms for patients.
Haisler said this allows the clinic to offer specialized care that gets to the root of the issues that patients face.
Corey Starke is one of those patients who's been receiving treatment from the clinic for the past two to three years.
He said without the clinic, he would not be where he is today.
"The support that I received here has actually helped facilitate me getting back to being a productive member of society," Starke said.
Starke battled addiction for years, but the clinic provided him access to free mental health care, and he said it helped set him free.
He wants this new location to allow more people who need free health care to have the ability to live healthy lives.
"It's just been an avenue of hope," Starke said.
The clinic also offers vision exams, social work, dental exams, and access to medication that could cost some people hundreds of dollars.
As of 2021, the Temple Community Clinic has served over three-thousand people, and as of 2022, those people have saved close to two-million dollars in medication costs.
Having a clinic in Temple is what Sherri Woytek, the Executive Director of the clinic said is a "hand up," not a "hand out" to the community.
Now that there is going to be a second location, she feels more residents who have not received the care they need will finally have the opportunity to do so.
If you need access to free health care, you can make an appointment online here.
The Clinic's hours of operation are from 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday at 1905 Curtis B. Elliott Dr.