Inner-city clinics enable a ministry to continue. A Minnesota congregation expands its acute care ministry in order to serve the poor.

In 1991 the St. Paul Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet formed Carondelet LifeCare Ministries (CLM) to ensure that the poor and underserved in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have access to affordable healthcare. The sisters decided that they could best serve this population by going directly to them, opening health clinics in neighborhoods throughout the metropolitan area. The first of CLM's St. Mary's Health Clinics began operations in January 1992. Since then, 10 clinics have opened to persons in poor and medically underserved neighborhoods, and CLM plans to establish a network of 15 to 20 health clinics within the next year. The clinics, which are staffed primarily by volunteers, offer primary, basic, intervention care. Patients are referred, when necessary, to specialty and subspecialty physicians. Clinics are initially open for one-half day per week, and hours are expanded as need dictates. The clinics served 2,689 patients in 1993, two-thirds of whom were women and children. Patient ethnic mix is representative of the demographics of the metropolitan area. Clinic volunteers work a minimum of four hours a month. A core paid staff--consisting of a director of nursing, a staff nurse, and a clinic coordinator--recruit volunteers and oversee daily operations. St. Mary's Health Clinics provide a variety of educational programs to prepare volunteers for their work.