Manuscripts Department
           Library of the University of North Carolina
                         at Chapel Hill

                 SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                              #4545
                EDGEMONT COMMUNITY CLINIC RECORDS
                            Inventory

Abstract:      Edgemont Community Clinic, a community-based
           health care facility in the low-income Edgemont
           section of Durham, N.C., functioned from 1968 to 1978. 
           It was staffed by volunteers, chiefly members of the
           Student Health Action Committee and other health
           sciences students at the University of North Carolina
           at Chapel Hill and Duke University.
               Correspondence, reports, notes, and other items in
           office files retained by Linda Woodard, who was active
           in the Edgemont Community Clinic as an organizer and
           medical technologist.  While correspondence and
           financial records are not extensive, it is possible to
           derive a rough understanding of the Clinic's history
           from these papers.  Of particular interest is a file
           of reports detailing some of the Clinic's operations
           and placing the Edgemont Community Clinic in the
           context of the national movement of the 1960s and
           1970s for community-sponsored free health care.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Clinics--North Carolina.
   College students--North Carolina--History--20th century.
   Community health services--North Carolina.
   Duke University--Students--History--20th century.
   Durham (N.C.)--Social conditions--20th century.
   Edgemont Community Clinic (Durham, N.C.).
   Health facilities--North Carolina--History--20th century.
   Poor--Health and hygience--North Carolina.
   Student volunteers in medical care--North Carolina.
   University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Students
       --History.
   Voluntarism--North Carolina--History--20th century.
   Woodard, Linda.

Size:      About 600 items (1.5 linear feet).

Provenance:    Received from Linda Woodard of Chapel Hill, N.C.,
               in October 1988.

Access:        No restrictions.

Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or 
           their descendants, as stipulated by United States
           copyright law.

                          INTRODUCTION

Historical Note

   In October 1968, the Edgemont Community Clinic in Durham,
North Carolina, opened.  The clinic, designed to serve residents
of the surrounding low-income neighborhood, was staffed chiefly
by health science student volunteers from Duke University and
students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who
were members of the Student Health Action Committee (SHAC). 
Holding sessions twice a week, by 1979, the Edgemont Community
Clinic had logged over 2,000 patient visits per year.  Clinic
volunteers, overseen by licensed practitioners who also donated
their time, administered general physical examinations, treated
acute and chronic medical illnesses, and operated a free pharmacy
and laboratory.
   Throughout its history, the Edgemont Community Clinic never
developed a secure financial base, despite support from Duke,
UNC, and, for a series of educational programs in public health,
from the United States Office of Economic Opportunity (O.E.O.). 
In an effort to strengthen the clinic's economic position,
consolidation with the Lincoln Community Health Center,
affiliated with Durham's Lincoln Hospital, was discussed in 1972. 
The inevitable loss of student control that such a merger would
have involved defeated the measure.
   The Edgemont Community Clinic survived until December 1978,
when, because of worsening economic conditions compounded by a
large population loss in the area and a vital need to repair the
clinic's facilities, SHAC decided to move its operations to the
adjacent East End community.

Collection Overview

   Materials in this collection are chiefly correspondence,
reports, notes, and other items in office files retained by Linda
Woodard, who was active in the Edgemont Community Clinic as an
organizer and medical technologist.  While correspondence and
financial papers are not extensive, it is possible to derive a
rough understanding of the Clinic's history from these papers. 
Of particular interest is a file of reports detailing some of the
Clinic's operations and placing the Edgemont Community Clinic in
the context of the national movement for community-sponsored free
health care that was underway in the 1960s and 1970s.
   There are also a few photographs of the Clinic, workers, and
patients.

                       SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series 1.  Office files
   1968-1979.  About 600 items.

       Office files consisting of routine correspondence,
reports, notes, and other items.  East End Health Center
materials consist of annoucements of its opening and its relation
to the Edgemont Community Center.

Folder 1       Board of directors, 1971-1973
       2       Building renovation, 1969
       3-4     Clippings
       5       Correspondence
       6       Director's manual
       7       East end Health Center, 1979
       8       Finances/supplies
       9       Forms
       10      Grant applications
       11      Lincoln Community Health Center, 1972
       12      Minutes, 1973-1978
       13      Miscellaneous
       14      Notes
       15      Operating information, 1975
       16-17   Personnel
       18      Procedures manual, 1978
       19      Reports
       20      Student Health Action Committee
       21      Survey of free clinic, 1972

Series 2.  Pictures
   Undated.  11 items.

       Photographs of the Edgemont Community Clinic, workers, and
patients.

   P-4545

                           SHELF LIST

   Box 1       Series 1

   Items separated:
       Series 2.  Photographs