Lubbock, TX: Located in a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, Lubbock (pop. 250,000) is a city low on taxes, low on the cost of living, and high on convenience. Its consistently low unemployment rate supports the naming of Lubbock in Best Places for Business and Careers by Forbes magazine in 2008. Lubbock also sports a world class airport, mild climate, three universities, an area lake for recreation, local college football, 6 area golf courses, local artists, hot live music, and delicious regional cuisine. Lubbock is known as the "hub city" since its retail trade area serves 1.2 million. Just a stone's throw from the major metropolitan delights of Albuquerque, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denver, weekend road trips to reach any of these cities range from 300 to 500 miles.

Our health center was formed as a safety net - the largest in the Lubbock community's health care delivery system - in 1992 under the guidance of the Lubbock Indigent Healthcare Coalition. Sister Mary Kathleen Small led this coalition, which formed our health center under the principal of a hand up rather than a hand out. We have grown from one site in 1992, to now having eight clinics within the city of Lubbock and operating two mobile units that provide medical and dental services to the counties of Lubbock, Crosby, Lynn, Terry, and Garza. Our health center went from serving over 9,000 patients a year in 1992, to serving 26,114 patients in 2016. In 2016, we served nearly 10% of the total Lubbock population, 70% of which were below 100% of the poverty level (e.g., $11,770 or less for one person, $24,250 or less for a family of four). Our mission is to provide quality primary and preventative health care services to those in need, regardless of a person's race/ethinicity, religion, gender, age, national origin, disability, or hardship. Our health center was developed based on the community's needs to fill gaps in service.