Providence Community Health Centers has served Rhode Islanders in need of high-quality health care since 1968. Today, we provide care to one in three city residents.

Despite the funding challenges facing community health centers across the country, PCHC has grown over the last few years to ensure that the community has the care they need. Most recently, that includes the 2025 opening of our new Broad Street clinic to care for people experiencing homelessness and the expansion of our Central Health Center. In the two years before that, we opened a new adult dental clinic to reach a critically underserved group of people and expanded our Capitol Health Center.

During the year, our staff volunteers at dozens of events to improve the overall well-being of the community. We have also embraced like-minded partners throughout Rhode Island, believing that together we can accomplish so much more. Here are some of our longest-term partnerships:

• The Rhode Island Mission of Mercy (RIMOM), an annual, two-day dental and oral health clinic that provides free services to Rhode Island’s most vulnerable residents. The 2024 event recorded the highest number of patients served and procedures completed since its founding. It also marked two important milestones – it was the 10th Mission of Mercy to take place and the fifth such event to be held on Providence Community Health Centers’ Prairie Avenue campus. Supported by more than 500 volunteer oral health professionals and members of the community, the 2024 Mission of Mercy delivered more than $375,000 worth of donated dental services, serving 623 Rhode Islanders. Thanks in part to our new adult dental clinic and some improved workflows, this year’s clinic increased its capacity by roughly 34% compared to 2023. The event is a partnership between The Rhode Island Oral Health Foundation, Delta Dental of Rhode Island, and Providence Community Health Centers. Services offered at this year’s clinic included routine cleanings, X-rays, fillings, root canal treatments on front teeth only and tooth extractions. Plus, for the first time since 2019, the clinic offered partial denture services.
• For more than 15 years, an annual event in Rhode Island called Warm Hands Warm Hearts has ensured that hundreds of local children stay warm in the winter months. In 2024, Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, WWLI “Lite 105” (official media partner), Petro Home Services, Coutu Bros. Moving & Storage, Chelo’s Hometown Bar & Grille, and Providence Community Health Centers teamed up to purchase and distribute coats, hats, mittens, and scarves to children in need. A record number of coats – nearly 800 – were collected for the 2024 event.
• Pods Swimming, which has partnered with us since 2018 to give free lessons to young patients at PCHC, an opportunity these children would not have otherwise. In the summer of 2024, our largest-ever group of young patients learned water safety and swimming skills this past summer.
• Reach Out and Read Rhode Island (RORRI), which partners with Rhode Island’s pediatric medical community at nearly 70 locations — including six of our health centers — throughout the state to provide new, developmentally appropriate books to children starting at birth. During pediatric doctor visits, parents and caregivers are given free books and encouraged  to read aloud with their children.
• The annual Back to School Celebration, which has worked for 25 years to ensure children are ready for the school year. In 2024, Providence Community Health Centers was once again a distribution site, giving away more than 1,300 backpacks filled with school supplies this year.

We are proud to be such an important part of Rhode Island’s community as we all work together to make our state a healthier place to live, work, and grow.