Our Story
Our History and Mission
Formerly Health Care for the Homeless, Outreach Community Health Centers (OCHC) provides high-quality primary, family and behavioral health services to people throughout the Greater Milwaukee area while maintaining its founding mission to serve the homeless, those experiencing extreme poverty and the uninsured.
Outreach Community Health Centers began direct service delivery in 1984 as a demonstration project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Pew Memorial Trust. During the past 35 years, OCHC programs have grown to provide a strong continuum of services that respond to the whole life needs of our patients and clients, and delivers those services at six different locations in Milwaukee. Two homeless outreach teams seek and serve homeless people sheltered in abandoned buildings and parks, as well as those seeking service at area shelters, food pantries and meal sites.
OCHC serves some of the most disadvantaged people in Milwaukee County. Residents of the 5 poorest zip codes make up 40% of OCHC's service population, and the zip code of our primary service site, 53206, has a median household income that is 48.7% lower than that of the county as a whole.
Over the course of 2018, Outreach Community Health Centers served 8,685 people through all programs; 28% were homeless, 33% did not have health insurance at some point in the year and 6.4% were children under the age of 18.
