Mission Statement

To serve as a resource for improving the physical, mental and social well-being of the community.

About

Codman Square Health Center is a community-based, outpatient health care and multi-service center in the heart of Dorchester. We opened our doors in 1979 with a dream: to build the best urban community in America. As part of this dream, we recognized that though health care begins by alleviating sickness, the journey to a true “culture of health” is achieved through the health of the whole person and the whole community. Our two-physician staff that summer of 1979 may have been small, but our mantra was not: while disease is a lack of health, health is not simply a lack of disease. Today, we are home to a staff of 280 multi-lingual and multi-cultural expert clinicians, medical staff and employees, most of whom reside in the neighborhoods near Codman Square. We boast more than 100,000 client contacts each year, and have developed an astounding depth and breadth of community programs, as well as strong partnerships with other organizations in order to meet our mission most efficiently.

We are the principal option for affordable, high quality, primary and preventive care in one of Boston’s poorest and most vulnerable communities. We provide comprehensive services including primary care, urgent care, dental care, eye care, behavioral health, public health, fiscal health, fitness/wellness programming and youth programming. We serve over 20,000 patients each year, 87% of whom live below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. Our achievements include developing an innovative Diabetes care model, collaborating with our in-house charter public high school, providing ‘prescriptions’ to our HealthWorks fitness center for women and children, and serving as an economic engine by bringing 15,000 people to the Codman Square merchant district each month. We have built a foundation of preventive and primary care services that engages consumers and embraces innovation — while never losing sight of our mission to provide access to care. CSHC has been lauded by academic and health care leaders and politicians, modeled by communities around the world, and embraced by patients.

Codman Square Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and receives federal support through its designation as a Section 330 community health center.