Congratulations to the 2026 Seed Grant Recipients!
The Street Medicine Institute’s Seed Grant program furthers SMI’s mission of assisting communities to establish their own Street Medicine programs. The program facilitates and enhances the direct provision of health care to rough sleepers where they live by providing communities and clinicians with expert training, guidance, and support to develop and grow their own Street Medicine programs. We were delighted to receive twenty-two deserving and qualified applications for the sixth year of this grant.
SMI is pleased to announce that this year's Seed Grant recipients are High Country Community Health in Boone, North Carolina and Cascades East Street Medicine in Klamath Falls, Oregon! Both programs will receive a year of SMI Membership and free registration for the International Street Medicine Symposium. Further, each has been awarded a grant in the amount of $10,000 and a year of intensive consultative support from Street Medicine experts. Congratulations!
Cascades East Street Medicine
Cascades East Street Medicine is a newly established, resident-driven program based within the Cascades East Family Medicine Residency in Klamath Falls, dedicated to delivering relationship-centered care to individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness in rural Klamath County. The program partners to bring interdisciplinary teams directly to patients through mobile street outreach, meeting individuals where they live and gather. Street rounds currently include an attending physician, a resident, and trusted community guides with lived experience, in partnership with local organizations such as Tayas Yawks, Public Health, and the Oregon Health & Science University School of Nursing Street Nursing Program. Together, the team attempts to provide basic medical care, wound care, harm reduction, and care navigation while building trust with a highly marginalized population in a geographically large, resource-limited region.
Over the next year, Cascades East Street Medicine aims to build a sustainable, integrated street medicine model embedded within both the local rural health system and the family medicine residency. Core goals include establishing a consistent weekly outreach presence, expanding the scope of clinical services, and formalizing a basic hospital consult team. The program is prioritizing strong partnerships across healthcare and community systems—including public health, tribal and veterans’ services, and local care management teams—to improve care coordination in a fragmented rural landscape. By integrating with existing infrastructure, expanding clinical capacity, and investing in resident education, the program aims to build a sustainable, community-informed model of care that advances health equity within a small rural healthcare system.
High Country Community Health
High Country Community Health (HCCH) is building on its existing outreach work to bring compassionate, low-barrier healthcare directly to unhoused individuals in rural western North Carolina. Their interdisciplinary team, led by experienced medical providers and supported by nurses, peer support specialists, and community partners, meets people where they are to provide care in nontraditional settings. Rooted in trust, dignity, and a trauma-informed approach, HCCH focuses on addressing the unique challenges of rural healthcare, including transportation barriers, stigma, and limited access to services. Over the next year, HCCH will strengthen and formalize this work, expand outreach, and connect more individuals to primary and behavioral healthcare, ultimately improving health outcomes and advancing equity for one of the region's most vulnerable population.
