This story originated from Sol del Valle and has been translated for our English readers.
La Clínica del Pueblo, currently located at the Third Street Center in Carbondale, has operated independently since the year 2020 as an effective, free and bilingual option for people who cannot access traditional medical services in the Valley.
Judith Alvarez, co-founder and program director, is a doctor who graduated from the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico. Her career includes work alongside Valley Settlement, another Carbondale-based nonprofit she collaborated with to collect data regarding the needs of the local Latino community. It was there that she became aware of the barriers that many people, especially women, face accessing medical services: from language to high costs to distrust in institutions.
Faced with this reality, in 2016, Alvarez and Dr. Michael Lintner began offering free or low-cost consultations at Mountain Family Health Center. The improvised office only had a donated massage bed and operated the first Saturday of each month, attending up to eight patients per session. Thus, the foundation was laid for what we now know as La Clínica del Pueblo.
In an interview with Sol del Valle Alvarez recalled, “At the beginning it was not easy at all. We had many patients who wanted to pay for the consultations. However, we told them the only payment [we wanted] was to follow their treatment, because some didn’t follow the instructions or simply stopped attending.”
It was four years later, in 2020, when the opening of La Clínica del Pueblo at its current location in the Third Street Center was made official, thanks to the support of Dr. Greg Feinsinger, a retired family physician who proposed the name in English: The People’s Clinic.
Since then, the team has grown and strengthened. Currently, it includes professionals like Isabel Almeida, Julianne Doherty and María Pérez as medical assistants, Yolanda González as a psychologist, Jenny Lang as medical director and family nurse practitioner and its board of directors. Thanks to this team, up to 16 people are seen daily and more than 500 each month. It’s worth noting that 99% of patients are Latinos.
One of the most important milestones in its development has been the remodeling of its facilities within a new space at the Third Street Center, financed by the Colorado Health Foundation since 2023. This change of space not only represented an improvement in infrastructure but also a significant expansion in the services offered, which now include general medicine, psychology, nutrition, counseling, laboratory resources and follow-up for chronic illnesses. This allows the clinic to cover almost all of a patient’s primary health care needs.
When it comes to the future of the project, Alvarez shared, “The dream of having this space has taken us more than nine years.” She continued, “During this time I’ve met wonderful people who have contributed with donations for infrastructure and equipment. This is a collaboration that continues to grow. Our next goal is to open a dental office, because we consider it an urgent need for our community.”
Currently, La Clínica del Pueblo is open on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9am to 1pm, Tuesdays from 4:30pm to 7:30pm, and the first and third Saturdays of each month from 9am to 1pm. To make an appointment, visit their website laclinicadelpueblo.care or call 970-591-1820. Services are completely bilingual.
