Wanda Ward had just transferred from Cleveland to Garfield high school. She didn’t know many other students, but she did know that her new school, like her old one, had a health clinic and that she could find safe haven there.

 

“They got me through my sophomore year,” she says of the staff of the Garfield Teen Health Clinic, a school outreach program of Odessa Brown. From a team of counselors, nurse practitioners and other health providers, teens receive free and confidential help for a variety of issues, from acne to alcohol addiction, stress to sexually transmitted diseases. Clinic staff also go into classrooms to do health and safety presentations.

 

“A lot of at-risk teens wouldn’t get physical and mental health services were it not for this clinic,” says counselor Rosie Moore. “The students really use it and see it as theirs.”

 

Wanda, a 2007 Garfield graduate bound for a private college in New York City, went to the clinic mostly for counseling around “basic high school stuff.” She quickly bonded with the staff, particularly Rosie. “She doesn’t make you feel like you’re in therapy,” she says. “You feel like you’re just talking.”