New community health center holds grand opening on St. Paul’s East Side

Molly Wilson, Pioneer Press
Updated ·2 min read

M Health Fairview held a grand opening Wednesday for Health Commons East — a new community health center on St. Paul’s East Side.

The facility opened May 24. The M Health Fairview system and Augsburg University offer three similar programs in Minneapolis, the first of which was opened in 1992.

The Conway Community Center at 2080 Conway St. hosts the walk-in clinic designed to remove barriers like insurance, transportation and language. All services are free and include blood pressure checks, medication management and vaccines.

Per the request of residents, the health commons has started offering foot care after many insurance companies stopped providing the coverage, according to Nawal Hirsi, manager of community programs and initiatives at M Health Fairview.

“The commitment of the organization is to the community,” Hirsi said. “St. Paul has one of the worst health disparities for people of color and there’s a lot of work to be done and we keep that at the forefront to drive us that just because this is set up doesn’t mean the job is done.”

The health commons are designed to meet the needs and desires of the community that they serve.

“At one of our sites, where people are experiencing homelessness, they don’t care about their hypertension. They care about what they’re going to eat,” said Katie Clark, executive director of Augsburg Health Commons. “And so how can we first work with them on what they need … and then build upon that, this is really trying to make relationships based on mutual benefit, not just one-sided.”

For example, the Health Commons in Minneapolis’ Cedar-Riverside neighborhood partners with vendors at the Mill City Farmers Market to host a food drive.

The health commons also have translators on hand; they are usually a community member who is willing to help and may not always speak fluent English. In St. Paul, the languages include Hmong and Spanish, among others.

Clark works on bringing Augsburg students in various nursing and social work programs for a semester-long “Transcultural Nursing Clinical'” with the option for a one-time visit or internship.

“I’m paid to be here with the students because we don’t want any miseducation. We don’t want to reinforce stereotypes. We don’t want students just to focus on being fearful or uncomfortable,” Clark said.

Hirsi and Clark along with Keith Allen, director of community health programs at M Health Fairview; James Hereford, president and CEO of M Health Fairview; Tony Sanneh, founder and CEO of the Sanneh Foundation; and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter delivered remarks at Wednesday’s grand opening.

Health Commons East was opened in partnership with the Sanneh Foundation, East Side Health & Well-Being Collaborative and Augsburg.

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