Summer Abundance
Happy Summer from The Rooted Refuge! This time of year always reminds me of abundance. We’re seeing the beginnings of ripe fruits and vegetables against the backdrop of warmth, greenery and sunshine. It feels like there is plenty. It feels like resources are overflowing if we were to just listen to the cues of nature. We’d like to share a bit more about how that feeling can translate into helping our community better, as we are experiencing a different funding dynamic in the clinic through the summer months.
Three years ago when Stephanie and I were opening The Rooted Refuge, we got the great idea to implement a program that would help subsidize half-cost treatments for folx in our community who weren’t able to afford our relatively affordable standard rate. The idea was born from a group of well resourced patients who wanted to contribute more to help those who couldn’t contribute as much. We call this initiative The Resource Redistribution Program. You can read more about it here. The basic idea is that for every person who pays more for one treatment, we can allocate one half-cost treatment. The average when one person pays more, and one person pays less is our “standard rate” which is what we need to keep our little business solvent.
This program has been wildly successful and officially makes our clinic the most affordable community acupuncture clinic in New York City. We’ve been able to provide half-cost treatments to hundreds of people over the past three years, and it’s completely funded by community contribution. What we are seeing, however, is that less money comes into The Resource Redistribution Program during these summer months. The reason, presumably, is that many of our well resourced patients are traveling and taking some time off from regular acupuncture treatments. This creates an overflow of patients who aren’t able to access half-cost treatments because the subsidy has decreased.
I would like to extend an invitation to our well resourced patient population to consider an additional contribution. If we can generate additional contributions, then we can continue to keep up with the increased demand for half-cost treatments. Some options are outlined below:
If you are coming in for acupuncture treatments, please review the green bottle diagram on our website to help guide you toward an appropriate payment tier. If you find yourself within the full bottle on the right, please consider choosing “Resource Redistribution Rate” on our booking system. If you find yourself within the almost empty bottle on the left, let us know so we can put you on the waitlist for half-cost treatments.
If you aren’t able to come in for treatments right now and you find yourself with an abundance of resources, please consider contributing $5, $10, $15, $20, $100– any amount is helpful. For every $100 contributed, we can subsidize 3 half-cost treatments which can make a world of difference to someone who is living with chronic pain or illness.
From time to time, we do “Free Clinic Shifts” where we open up the clinic for a shift and make it 100% free of charge. We are able to do even more of these shifts if they are sponsored by the community. For a $600 sponsorship contribution, we can host a Free Clinic Shift that will provide treatment to 10-15 people.
Thank you to all that have made our Resource Redistribution Program a success. To make a contribution, please email us at therootedrefuge@gmail.com.
