Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
E11: Beyond Politics: The True Mission of a Community Health Center
Compassionate care without judgment or financial barriers—that's the mission at the heart of the Alpha Center in Fort Collins. Jennifer McLain, who joined the organization after a career as a middle school principal, shares how this Christian medical clinic has been serving the community since 1985 with free sexual health services.
What sets the Alpha Center apart? They've created a safe space where people facing challenging circumstances can receive accurate medical information and emotional support without financial pressure. Their comprehensive services include pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, STI testing, mental health counseling, and holistic support through classes, mentorship, and material assistance. Most importantly, they provide these services without barriers—no insurance requirements, no residency documentation, just open doors for anyone seeking help.
Jen beautifully articulates the philosophy driving their work: "We see people as valuable and necessary and worthy of being loved and cared for." This perspective shapes everything at the Alpha Center, where they focus on serving each person with dignity regardless of their situation or decisions. Particularly moving is Jen's personal story from her Peace Corps service in Samoa, where she experienced both danger and extraordinary community support—a formative experience that reinforced her belief in seeing the good in humanity even after facing hardship.
Whether you're curious about sexual health resources in Northern Colorado, interested in supporting community-based healthcare, or simply appreciate organizations that bridge gaps in our social safety net, this conversation offers valuable insights. Visit https://thealphacenter.org/ to learn more about their medical services or reach out directly to Jen at jenm@thealphacenter.org to arrange a tour and see firsthand how they're making a difference in countless lives.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a meaningful charity organization to donate to? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Jen McClan, with the Alpha Center. Jen, how's it going?
Speaker 3:It's going great. Thanks for having me on today.
Speaker 2:We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your organization.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. The Alpha Center is a Christian medical clinic in Fort Collins. It was founded in 1985, and we provide care for our community at no cost related any issue related to sexual health. We provide medical and holistic care. So we do pregnancy testing, ultrasound, mental health counseling and then sexually transmitted infection testing. And then our holistic services include pregnancy and family support, either through classes or mentorship. Pregnancy and family support, either through classes or mentorship, aftercare for those who've experienced miscarriage or stillbirth, labor and delivery classes, some material assistance and connection to other organizations or resources in the Fort Collins community, and then care for anyone who has had an experience with an abortion as well.
Speaker 2:How did you get into this volunteer work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a great question. I am actually not a volunteer, but I love what we get to do and we are supported by an army of volunteers. So I've been with the Center almost 11 years and came out of a career in education where I had been a middle school principal and it just was time for a life change. I'm sure you know that, and many of the listeners probably have experienced that place of it's time for just something new and different.
Speaker 3:And the mission and vision of the Alpha Center to care for women in our community with no barriers to access and no limitations to getting the help and the support that they need was something that really just spoke to my heart, and I really love that.
Speaker 3:We come alongside people in the middle of places where they feel like maybe nobody else is aware of their challenge, maybe nobody else has come alongside them and given them a place that's safe to talk or safe to receive information, and instead of relying on Dr Google, they actually go to a place where they receive accurate medical information about what's happening in their life and have the ability to have counseling alongside that. That's professional and I love that it was at no cost. I just think there's so many places in the world where everything costs so much, and we get to come alongside these women and men, who are just wonderful people experiencing a unique situation, and partner with them while not impacting their bottom line and we don't profit from their decisions so we're able to just be really kind and gracious and open with them.
Speaker 2:What are some myths or misconceptions in your line of work?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good.
Speaker 3:I think that's one of my favorite questions that you asked, and I actually like to speak rather in light of who we are rather than who we aren't, because I think maybe that will help adjust things.
Speaker 3:But Alpha Center is not a political organization and we are consistently committed to providing accurate medical information to our patients and, again, we don't profit from anybody's decision, and so we really love to partner with people and come alongside them, no matter the results of their STI screening, the potential decisions or intentions for their pregnancy, any of the challenges they may be facing. It's really just a privilege to come alongside people in that deciding and kind of tender place where, again, maybe nobody else is interacting with them. So we love that. We believe in the value of informed consent and informed decision making and, again, we don't make a profit off of anybody's decision and I love that we have no barriers, so nobody. We're not required to have insurance or documentation of residents or anything like that in order to access services at the Alpha Center, and I think that hopefully addresses some of the misconceptions that are out there about the work that we do.
Speaker 2:Who is your main base of supporters and who would you target? Who's your main target donor?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:How do you attract them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, primary donor.
Speaker 3:I think really the work that we do is so compelling to people because it's not rooted in any desire other than to serve people well and because we're a Christian medical clinic, we want to do that, coming through a Christian lens of love, kindness, forgiveness and grace.
Speaker 3:And so our primary donor is actually anybody who wants to serve people who are often unseen and maybe feel like they aren't valued, maybe feel like their situation is just too much for somebody else to interact with. And that's not how we see them. We see them as valuable and necessary and worthy of being loved and cared for, and so our primary donor actually looks a lot like you and me and often involved with our church community in Fort Collins, which is a big community and a really generous community. We have businesses in town who are active supporters of the work that we do, and then we receive a couple of grants, but we're not federally funded so we're not navigating any of those challenges right now, but we are. We have been really blessed with a donor base. It's probably around 800, either churches, individuals or businesses and anyone's welcome.
Speaker 2:Anyone's welcome Outside of work. What do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love to travel. In fact, in a couple of weeks I'm going to see my brother and his family who live in the United Kingdom, so I'll spend a couple of weeks enjoying a proper British spring. I love to read and I love to cook are the things that I really enjoy doing outside of work and the viewers won't be able to see this, but when we first started, you saw our dogs in the background, so I love to hang out with our pets as well.
Speaker 2:Let's switch gears. Can you describe a hardship or life challenge that you overcame and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:Gosh. So I was a Peace Corps volunteer in my early 20s, right after I graduated from college, and while I was serving I served as a volunteer in the beautiful island nation of Samoa and while I was there, we had a break in in our home. I was living with another volunteer and it was in the middle of the night and not only were they attempting to take things from us, there was some intent to harm us and it was a real challenge because I had eight months left in my service and these were people who I had eight months left in my service and these are people who, over the course of the prior two years, I had developed a deep love and affection for and I still have them, in fact. That's all the decorations you see in the background are from the beautiful island nation of Samoa. But it was really challenging to think that there were people in our midst that didn't want good things for us while we were serving, with just openness and a desire to leave them better than we found them, while growing ourselves and I speak in a plural because, again, I shared a home with another volunteer at that time. But for me, the impact there was there was such a powerful outcome, because the people that I worked directly with at the hospital, their man, their rally around not only me but my roommate who worked at a school was, honestly, at times overwhelming, because they've agreed amongst themselves, without us asking, to provide security at our home overnight, both at our front door and our back door, just through their own families, and so it was sometimes their kids, their brothers, uncles, maybe their husband, because they were so upset by the actions that had been taken towards us.
Speaker 3:And it was just, it was amazing to to get back in touch with the fact that there are such a beautiful people, and just because one or two people intended harm didn't mean that everybody intended harm, and so it really helped frame, I think, for me how I look at global situations, because I think it can be really easy to say, gosh, that whole group of people operates this way, because I see one or two people doing something different. That's just, that's not true. That's one or two people who are part of that group of people, but the rest of the group is probably a pretty amazing group, and so that response from the people that I worked with and other volunteers just really empowered me to be able to finish my service with confidence, with strength and with continuing to love and appreciate and embrace the again, the beautiful island people of Samoa, and to do my job well. As opposed to operating in fear, I got to operate out of confidence and love, which was so unexpected in the first days after what was a really hard event.
Speaker 2:Good story, yeah, jen. Please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about the Alpha Center.
Speaker 3:Yeah, alpha Center is available to anybody and everybody in our community who needs and wants the services that we provide. It really truly is our belief that everybody matters and that, no matter your circumstance, no matter what might bring you in to seek our services, you'll be seen, you'll be heard, you'll be cared for and you'll be loved genuinely, and I think that's just so critical for people to know.
Speaker 2:How can our listeners learn more about the Alpha Center?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can visit. We have a medical website, so if they want more medical information, they can visit thealphacentercom. Or if they'd like information about volunteering or potentially our client services, they can visit thealphacentercollectivecom. They just have different information and I'd also invite anybody who's listening. If they'd like a tour. They can do that by reaching out to my email directly and that's J-E-N, little N and M, as in Mary at thealphacenterorg. So again, j-e-n-m at thealphacenterorg. I would love to give anybody a tour.
Speaker 2:Well, Jennifer, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's gnpfortCollinscom. That's GNPfortCollinscom, or call 970-438-0825.