Who We Serve
Our patients are ineligible for health insurance.
While the government subsidizes health insurance for the majority of the population, 4% of the population remains uninsured, primarily because they are ineligible for government-supported insurance programs. This is the gap VIM seeks to cover.
98% of our patients are immigrants, and we care for many others with a lapse in medical or dental coverage. They are Berkshire natives who need dental care; a family arriving from Ukraine by way of the Mexican border; an asylum-seeking Honduran mother and her eight-year-old daughter who spent four months apart in detention. They live and work throughout our community, supporting small businesses, homes, restaurants, and farms. They are our neighbors.
Many of our patients have lived in the region for dozens of years, working in essential, frontline positions as farmers, cleaners, chefs, and laborers. Others have recently arrived in the United States in critical need of care. They are often seeking asylum, having been forced to escape from various countries in Central America as well as Brazil, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and West Africa. Many have experienced significant trauma in their home countries, en route to the U.S., or after they arrived. VIM is often a family’s first stop after arriving from the southern border.
Our Patient Population
Our goal is for patients to live healthy, connected, joyful lives in a community that values and holds them. This requires that we learn from patients what good health means to them, help them create a plan to achieve it, and ensure that there are pathways in the community that will allow them to succeed. Our culturally-attuned care model seeks to address the root causes of health disparities, invest in the communities we serve, and rethink the larger systems that leave people behind.
We Invest in Our Patients
Select Programs and Avocacy
VIM sits on the CHI Committee which oversees the development and implementing a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) for Berkshire County. CHI is made up of representatives from Berkshire Health Systems, the Berkshire Opioid Addiction Prevention Collaborative, the Berkshire Public Health Alliance, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, Pittsfield Health Department, Southern Berkshire Rural Health Network, Tri-Town Health Department and Volunteers in Medicine.
Community Health Initiative (CHI)
The Berkshire Area Support for our Immigrant Community (BASIC)
Co-directed by VIM’s Executive Director Ilana Steinhauer, BASIC holds regular meetings every other week in which local agencies use community input to identify service gaps and assign an agency to take the lead on filling that gap. It may be a one-time, short-term need (e.g., for housing after a fire) or a broader need (e.g., to improve communication between law enforcement and the immigrant community).
Spanish-language Community Advisory Network (SCAN)
The Mahaiwe’s Spanish-language Community Advisory Network (SCAN) is comprised of 10-12 cultural ambassadors, advising on inclusive programming and reducing barriers to access to ensure that members of the Latinx communities in Berkshire County become a well-represented cohort at the Mahaiwe, attending performances, films, and events and – over time – joining staff and board in shaping the organization. Since its formation, SCAN advisors have helped organize free Spanish-language film screenings and live performances at the Mahaiwe and in Berkshire County.
In 2021 we urged southern Berkshire school districts to hire Community Health Worker America Lopez. America keeps immigrant families informed and involved in their children’s education and helps create an educational system attuned to the distinct needs of immigrant students—5% of the school population.
Education Liaison
Summer Camp Program
Summer in the Berkshires is a time of economic growth and expanded employment opportunities for our patients. Every summer we partner with local summer camps to provide childcare for 150 of our patients’ children so that parents can provide for their families.
“Supporting VIM means making an impact on our community that reaches all the way to the country’s borders. Every day we read about men, women, and children risking everything for a better life: refugees and asylum-seekers, parents leaving children, children leaving parents. With climate change the situation will become even more challenging. VIM helps the Berkshires live up to its promise as a welcoming community and sanctuary.”
—Adam Hinds, CEO, Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate & former Massachusetts State Senator