Welcome to Fenway Health’s Annual Report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.  We are publishing our annual report online this year to help conserve natural resources, reduce expenses and make this information more easily accessible.  We hope you like this new format.

Fenway’s big news during the year was the opening of the Ansin Building at 1340 Boylston Street.  This is the largest facility ever constructed by an organization with a specific mission to serve the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.  This was a pretty remarkable accomplishment, especially when you consider Fenway’s humble beginnings.

Fenway Health first opened our doors to serve the community nearly forty years ago.  Initially, those doors opened on a cramped space staffed by volunteer clinicians.  As the demand for our services expanded, we moved to slightly larger space in the basement at 16 Haviland Street and hired our first paid medical staff.  When the HIV crisis hit and the need for Fenway’s help became urgent, our community responded and we built 7 Haviland, our home for 18 years. 

As Fenway’s name became synonymous with compassionate, quality care and the LGBT community, more and more patients turned to us for help. Our medical, behavioral health, research and outreach programs continued to grow and we were faced with the reality that 7 Haviland Street was no longer large enough to contain all of Fenway’s good works.  We began the work of planning for the future.

With your support, that planning and hard work paid off on March 30, 2009 when we opened the doors of our new 100,000 square foot health care and research facility.  Rising ten stories above Boylston Street in the heart of the West Fens, our new building serves as both a symbol of the LGBT community’s progress and as a resource that will help our community make even greater strides.  It offers us expanded space, our own conference center with a state-of-the-art auditorium and some truly inspiring views.  Even more impressive than the building is the work that happens inside of it. 

Every day, our doctors and nurses care for patients with ailments ranging from earaches and stomach flu to chronic conditions like HIV/AIDS.  Our therapists help people dealing with the loss of a loved one, a violent hate crime or a recent cancer diagnosis.  Our staff connect some of society’s most marginalized people with programs that often literally help save their lives.  The Fenway Institute’s researchers work to address the most pressing health issues facing the LGBT community and people living with HIV.

As we expanded our physical footprint this year, we added dentistry and optometry services. We also grew our ability to effect health care and policy both nationally and internationally, including leading the charge to ensure LGBT inclusion in the federal government’s Healthy People 2020 health promotion and disease prevention blueprint.

You’ll read about this work, our new services and our new home in this annual report. None of this would be possible without your help.  Thank you for your continued support of Fenway Health.

Sincerely,

Allison Salke                            Chair, Board of Directors		Stephen L. Boswell, MD President & Chief Executive Officer

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