
One longtime grantee partner that provides technical assistance is the Illinois Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (IAFCC), which provides a variety of capacity building, educational and administrative services to its member health centers. Initial VNA funding was awarded to a small group of free clinics for planning purposes. Several subsequent grants then supported the re-certification of the IAFCC and strategic planning to optimize its mission. Ultimately an active membership association was created, one that now coordinates and promotes data collection, fundraising and best practices for more than 40 free and charitable clinics serving over 100,000 people statewide.
A more recent technical assistance grantee is The MAVEN Project. Using specially developed telemedicine technology, MAVEN coordinates communications between its volunteer medical specialists and community-based primary care providers, allowing for subspecialty consultation, group education, and professional mentoring that otherwise would not be possible. Currently in its second pilot year, MAVEN has partnered with five Illinois free clinics and has impacted more than 2,400 people across the sites.