Agenda
Staffed on an entirely volunteer basis by a variety of students and professionals from throughout the Bay Area, the organization is administered by undergraduates, with policy decided upon through consensus via the central Planning Committee legislative organ. Participating undergraduates are either currently enrolled in, or have already completed, a training and certification course offered by the Health and Medical Sciences Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Medical students operate out of the five-year UCB-UCSF Joint Medical Program, and optometry students hail from the UC Berkeley School of Optometry at Minor Hall. Professionals from within both the city of Berkeley, CA and the university cooperate with these students in order to offer medical, chiropractic, legal, and social assistance to a largely homeless and low-income clientele.
The fundamental agents of the Suitcase Clinic are the undergraduate caseworkers, who serve as advocates for clients. They are responsible for recording the social history of their client, and for ensuring that their client has received the services desired. Additional roles include establishing and maintaining positive relationships, making referrals to other agencies, providing follow-ups, fostering a non-judgmental social environment, and taking an active interest in the welfare of the client and community. Services currently offered by the three drop-in centers include health care, medication, physical examinations, hygienic supplies, vision screening, legal counsel, meals, footwashing, chiropractic, hair cutting and massage therapy.
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Famous quotes containing the word agenda:
“The first full-fledged generation of women in the professions did not talk about their overbooked agenda or the toll it took on them and their families. They knew that their position in the office was shaky at best. . . . If they suffered self-doubt or frustration . . . they blamed themselves—either for expecting too much or for doing too little.”
—Deborah J. Swiss (20th century)
“The Law of Triviality ... briefly stated, it means that the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.”
—C. Northcote Parkinson (1909–1993)
“The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing. We now have a mainstream press whose news agenda is increasingly influenced by this netherworld.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)