Next month, the clinic will open its new facility in Crystal Lake after outgrowing its modest space in Woodstock. The new building, located at 401 Congress Parkway in Crystal Lake, will more than double Family Health Partnership’s space (to nearly 10,000 square feet) and double the number of exam rooms (from six to 12).

All of this is an effort to provide affordable health care for uninsured and underinsured McHenry County residents. When the clinic started as a partnership with Community Health Clinic in 1996, nobody could have imagined what it would become 17 years later.

Through the gracious donation of time and expertise from dozens of area professionals, Family Health Partnership provides for those who need it 28 volunteer physicians, 17 referral physicians, 10 volunteer nurses, four volunteer interpreters, 20 general active in-clinic volunteers, eight summer college students, two staff nurse practitioners, and a mix of other volunteer and paid staff.

“We started looking at a project six years ago because the space that we’ve got right now, while it is great, and we thought we would never outgrow it, frankly there’s been more and more uninsured, and we’ve been getting more physicians in,” Family Health Partnership Clinic Executive Director Suzanne Hoban said. “Right now we’re having to turn physicians and volunteers away because we don’t have enough space to put them.”

Family Health Partnership Clinic is funded through private grants, foundations and community fundraising. The new facility in Crystal Lake cost $3.2 million. All but a little more than $300,000 had been raised as of earlier this month. Almost all of the money has come from private donations, Hoban said.

“This has been a huge community effort,” she said. “I’m so excited for the community to see it, but I’m even more excited for the patients to see it, because that’s really who we’re doing it for.”

Congratulations and thank you to all who make the clinic the success that it is.