Lorna Begg
With the community engagement project in mind, I set out to the Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg to find out how this non-profit benefits the Fredericksburg community. What I found was a series of power distributions that has left a community, specifically the uninsured, disempowered. This community within Fredericksburg has exclusive disadvantages in terms of access to health care for the greater Fredericksburg community. Dissimilarly to my first research project, which examined broad gentrification for the city of Cork, Ireland, I intend with this project to examine a clinic program that targets a direct community, and how it works to empower them.
I found your presentation and your paper incredibly interesting. I really liked how you analyzed the power dynamics between the clinic and its patients. I really liked how you broke down Medicaid, it actually answered a lot of questions I have had in the past. I think it’s ridiculous how specific the guidelines and requirements are to qualify for certain programs and I think you did a really good job explaining that. Free clinics are such a great help to all communities so I really admire you for volunteering there, my mom is a nurse and has complained in the past about a lack of volunteers. Overall, you did a great job breaking down all of what you learned through your experience and I can tell that it was a very informative learning experience!
I truly enjoyed your research topic. I think it’s important to spread the importance of how poorly power is divided in regards to health insurance. Moss clinic is a clinic that dirrectly affects me, it saved my mothers life. For this reason alone I am glad you did your research on it. I think this great resource should be something that everyone in the community is aware of. Thank you for continuing your volunteer time with them.