Everything we do is driven by the neighbors we serve. We empower them to define what they need, and then we provide a beautiful, safe, trauma-informed space to meet those needs. Provides kind, quality, non-judgmental, comprehensive healthcare for anyone living and working on Aurora Ave. At SHE Clinic, we believe everybody needs to be reminded of their goodness. Our purpose is to provide kind, quality, non-judgmental, comprehensive healthcare to women living and working on Aurora Avenue.
Since Aurora Commons opened in , we have built trusted relationships with hundreds of female-identifying street-based sex workers who are experiencing commercial sexual exploitation CSE on Aurora Avenue N. We have learned from them that homelessness, poverty, drug dependence, and violent victimization create the need for a variety of health and social services, yet simultaneously serve as barriers to accessing these very services. Barriers include both structural and process factors e.
As we continued to witness both the need and barriers to healthcare, we began to leverage our relationships at the Commons by directly involving these women in the development and implementation of what we now call the Safe, Healthy, Empowered SHE Clinic.
Since its inception, the SHE Clinic patient roster has been full and continued to grow. Simultaneously the need for a companion clinic offering healthcare for our male-identifying and gender-nonconforming neighbors became increasingly apparent as these neighbors asked for the same services offered by SHE Clinic. In the spring of , Aurora Commons was able to expand into the retail space next door, allowing for program space expansion and, with the support of Ending the HIV Epidemic EHE , the buildout of a permanent clinic space in the Commons.
Phone: auroraclinic auroracommons. Phone: sheclinic auroracommons. Shireesha Dhanireddy, photo by Grace Beck.
