Dewberry Architecture Is Working With H.O.P.E Clinic To Renovate New Space

Megan Farley with Dewberry Architecture and Jeff Burdge with H.O.P.E Clinic joined News On 6 to talk about new renovations to the H.O.P.E Clinic and the clinic's capital campaign called "HOPE Starts Here."

What can you tell us about the new clinic?

"We're really, really excited to be partnering with you all. Dewberry is designing or helping them design and renovate a new space that needed a lot of help when you first got it, but we are coming along. The space looks great and this is, hopefully moving in in September, and this is all part of the capital campaign that is underway now too," Farley said.

What is the H.O.P.E Clinic?

"It's health outreach, prevention and education. We do education and testing on infections diseases specifically HIV, Hepatitis C and other STIs, as well as some work in harm reduction for injection drug uses," Burdge said.

How important is a clinic like this for the community?

"It is incredibly important. We see a lot of uninsured or underinsured people that can come into our clinic. It is judgment free. We're really there just to get the community tested so they're aware if they are positive for a disease. So we give them treatment and they can let others know," Burdge said.

Statistics show that 17% of HIV positive people in Oklahoma do not know they have HIV. How does the clinic get the word out about testing?

"Oklahoma has a real burden of HIV here and so when we also have outreach vans that will go into Eastern Oklahoma and rural communities and get them tested there as well," Burdge explains.

Can you explain more about the capital campaign and why you're doing it?

"We're renovating a building at 51st in Yale and we're going to be able to expand from three clinic rooms to six so we can service even more people. We serviced over 3,000 people last year, so hopefully we can continue that trend," Burdge said.

How can people donate?

"We've been incredibly lucky. A lot of foundations in town have been opening their pocketbooks to us, but we encourage the public that cares about a community health to go to hopetesting.org and donate. We are 80% there to our 2.2 million goal so we're asking for the public to help us out there," Burdge said.

If you are interested in donating visit https://hopetesting.org/capital-campaign/