PCA - Providence Community Acupuncture

PCA Opening at Thundermist Health Center in West Warwick

We are very pleased to announce that, in less than a week, Providence Community Acupuncture will be opening a second location . Our new clinic will be located on Providence St. in West Warwick, within the Thundermist Health Center . PCA in West Warwick will be like PCA in Providence in every significant way. We will be providing acupuncture for a sliding scale fee in a comfortable, community setting. You will find the same front desk heroes and the same punks, and the same commitment to making acupuncture accessible and effective enough to change patients’ lives with regular treatments. It is our goal at PCA and within the community acupuncture coop, POCA, to build strong networks of clinics as geographically wide and deep as is the demand. Opening at Thundermist is a big step in achieving this goal in Rhode Island.

We are excited about the unique partnership this venture represents between us and Thundermist Health Center. Legally and financially, the two organizations are independent entities; and we have separate mission statements. However, both PCA and Thundermist have been deliberate to create a situation where one can find affordable acupuncture under the same roof as a comprehensive community healthcare center. Thundermist patients pay on sliding scale of between $5 and $25 for acu treatments, while our traditional sliding scale of $15-$35 remains in place for all others.

Opening day at Thundermist is Monday, October 28th. To start, our hours will be Monday 3-6, Tuesday 10-1, and Friday 10-1. We will be adding more days and more hours as we get settled in and demand increases. We hope you will share this information with your friends and family in Kent and South Counties, and that you’ll come by for a treatment if the new location makes sense for you, or if you just want to help us lay down the good vibes.

Here we are at the Thursday night farmers market right on the Thundermist premises

New Bike Rack at PCA!

Hooray. The days of locking our bikes to the gas meter, and other random infrastructure, are over. We are pleased to introduce our dapper new bicycle rack. You’ll actually find it around the left side of the building, which means cyclists won’t have to navigate the slightly squeezed parking lot in front of PCA. Motorists will, no doubt, appreciate this as well.

It’s a beauty, and was a Steelyard collaboration between artists, M Quinn and Lee Corley. Thanks to them. And, happy and safe cycling!

And speaking of which, did you know you can request a pedicab (bicycle taxi) to get you to your appointment. If you live in Providence and are able to give some advance notice, you can contact Sol Chariots for a lift to PCA.

Roll Call. Who wants to help spread safe affordable acupuncture, build a better co-op, and strengthen our clinic?

Today, October First, we start our second annual POCA Membership Drive. Even if you don’t become a member, it means a lot to us that you know why we’re doing it and what it means for everyone. And, if you do decide to be a member, here’s your link.

We want more people to have safe affordable acupuncture. So we’re asking you to help. More members mean more support for cost-effective acupuncture. More members means a better, stronger co-op. More members in your community means a stronger clinic as well!

These are not abstract ideas. POCA has now given 3 micro-loans to start-up clinics. The first one was to Guelph Community Acupuncture in Ontario, Canada, which is now thriving. The second is to Grass Valley Community Acupuncture in GV, California, which is opening this fall. The third micro-loan has not been disbursed yet, but is a partnership in an acu-underserved area in the Midwest.

So, help us seed our fourth clinic via POCA micro-loan. 300 new memberships @ $25 = $7500, the amount of a start-up micro-loan. If we can generate just ONE new member from each existing clinic, we’ll have enough revenue to provide one more start-up loan. If we can come up with TWO members per clinic, that’s TWO loans. Imagine, that’s like building new clinics with your own hands!

And, look at all these requests we’re getting for clinics all over the continent. Our main problem to date to getting clinics going whenever they’re needed is a serious shortage of punks (as was written about in this blog last year). But, the other major way your membership is going to help is by open the doors to, POCATech, the community acupuncture school we’ve been planning for two years.So in a few years, we’ll graduate punks from a low-cost school, be able to provide low-cost (currently 4%) loans, and voila! Unlimited expansion!

And hey, it’s not just for the benefit of POCA. There are some serious benefits for members. Three free treatment cards to give out to friends and family, free treatment for your birthday, paperwork fee waived at all POCA clinics so you don’t have to pay extra for acupuncture when you go on vacation (although you do still have to fill out new paperwork!). And most of all, being a member of the POCA family, being able to volunteer to help in clinics or in POCA, getting the monthly newsletter, participating in the forums, and sometimes even POCA-Members-only specials at clinics. It’s fun to be a part of POCA

So, go on over to the sign-up page at poca.com, or ask at the clinic anytime. We’ll have some POCA volunteers (David, Arjan) in the front office at select times during the week to answer questions and help you sign up.

Poked, Punked, and PRN-ed: New Free Video!

POCA member Michelle Cox describes how her journey as an educator was impacted by becoming a patient at Providence Community Acupuncture, and the larger POCA-sphere. Her goal: create a viable, sustainable and replicable alternative to public school — for everyone.

Link to an introduction to the video as well as the video here

Link straight to the video here.

We offer this up for a couple reasons. Firstly, because the ideas presented are exciting, and show how acupuncture and organizing work through a cooperative of social businesses can say a lot about getting anything done that we really care about. And secondly, we want you to give POCA TV a try, and this is a nice introduction.