This is our tenth episode, and the finale of season one of the Love FoCo Show. We can't wait to bring you more conversations with the amazing people who make Fort Collins such a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Stay tuned, we'll see you in January 2026!
Greg Hodsden is the Executive Director of Christ Clinic, a nonprofit providing free primary healthcare to uninsured and under-insured residents in Fort Collins. A fifth-generation native of the city, Greg has deep roots and a rich background in coaching, pastoring, and nonprofit leadership to his role. His leadership brings compassion, practical service, and a commitment to empowering others.
Affordable healthcare remains one of the biggest unmet needs in many American cities. In Fort Collins, tens of thousands of families are living without insurance, often one medical issue away from crisis. What does it look like when a community clinic steps in to close the gap?
According to Greg Hodsden, who serves as the Executive Director for Christ Clinic, the answer lies in dignity, generosity, and faith in action. Through a network of volunteer doctors, nurses, and donors, Christ Clinic provides completely free healthcare to uninsured residents—no strings attached. With mental health partnerships, spiritual care, and plans to expand into a new permanent location, the organization is scaling both its reach and its impact.
On this episode of The Love FoCo Show, Jeff Faust welcomes Greg Hodsden for a conversation about legacy, leadership, and the future of healthcare access in Northern Colorado. Greg shares how his own family experienced life without insurance, why Christ Clinic matters more than ever, and how the community can get involved in offering hope and healing.
Narrator: This is the Love Foco Show.
Greg Hodsden: My first day, I started at one of our clinics on a Saturday morning and I had in my mind this picture of who I would see walk through the door as our first patient that I would ever see as Executive Director of Christ Clinic. And it was the person was the complete opposite of who I thought it would be. And that'll stick with me for the rest of my life because it's anyone around us could fall into this category. Our family in all of our years together, we've been uninsured.
Narrator: Welcome to the Love Foco Show. Our podcast highlights the incredible people who make Fort Collins the place we're proud to call home. Each week, your host, Jeff Faust, sits down with local leaders, community champions, and change makers to share their stories, what they love about our city, and how they're helping it thrive. So whether you're out on the trail, at a brewery, or walking through Old Town, thanks for tuning in.
Jeff Faust: Today, we're sitting down with Greg Hodsden from Christ Clinic here in Fort Collins. He's the executive of an amazing ministry offering free health care to anyone in need. His leadership and history and longevity in Fort Collins is so unique and storied and exactly what I talk about when I say it's the people who make this city so special. I'm so excited for you to hear his story, what brought him here, what he's doing in and around our community, and how many lives his organization is impacting on a regular basis. I think his story will inspire you to get involved and maybe even with his own opportunities, and I can't wait to share this conversation with all of you.
Greg, thank you so much for agreeing to do this. Yeah. I've been looking forward to this conversation because a lot of my interviews up to this point on the podcast, they've been with incredible leaders in our city, civil servants, you know, former mayors, chaplains, business leaders. And now I'm getting a chance to sit down with one of Love Foco's premier partners, one of our close friends in the city doing the work that we're so passionate about and spend time with you and and really help make your story famous and your ministry famous and I'm just so excited for everyone to be able to get a chance to know you and know what you're doing in our city. So thank you so much for for being here.
And, you know, we'll get into this quite a bit, but obviously, the executive director of Christ Clinic
Greg Hodsden: Yep.
Jeff Faust: Offering free health care to people in and around our area, really no limits, anyone in need, anybody who wants to grow on health, to have something to look at, you're caring for them. What a sweet, sweet space to be in. Yeah. I wanna talk a lot about that, dig into that together. But you know, every story has an origin too.
And and I ask this to every interview that we have, like, what is your Fort Collins origin story? Are you a a born native, like one of the few that I meet? Or did you transplant in somewhere? Like, tell us about your Fort Collins Fort Collins origin story.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. I love my Fort Collins origin story. So just a couple of months ago, we bought my parents house and I was born the day they moved into that house.
Jeff Faust: Wow.
Greg Hodsden: And so I've I've been born I've
Jeff Faust: seen like sitcoms of that happening. This is like a real life example.
Greg Hodsden: This is a real life example and we bought it with all its problems but we my wife and I have kind of always dreamt about that being a thing that we would do. Yeah. And and yet native born and raised in Fort Collins and I've moved away three times and moved back three times. Okay. So we get into that later but
Jeff Faust: It's like a magnet. It just keeps pulling you back.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Does. We love Fort Collins. My wife is from Ohio and she said Fort Collins is home.
It's been home since the first time you brought me in April and it snowed 20 inches on that trip, you know? Yeah. So she has loved it from the the second that she got introduced to Fort Collins and I've always loved it. It it is like a magnet, but my my mom grew up on a dairy farm at Taft Hill and 287. Wow.
And so on the Southeast corner was my grandpa's dairy farm where my mom grew up and to the north was one of her uncle's farms and to the west was another uncle's farm and my grandpa owned the the fields that are now houses behind the VFW.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Was gonna say these aren't fields anymore.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. So there there are three of those corners still have some fields and are still a little farming, but none of the none of the dairy farms are operational anymore. Yep. Stegner is a name that Yeah. People will know around here.
And lots of history in La Porte and that Northwest Corner of Fort Collins on 287, but my great grandparents, there there's a feed store currently across from CLP, elementary, and middle school, and that was my great grandparents gas station and fur trading post. Wow. And
Jeff Faust: That's going way back. If you're trading furs.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. My my kids are fifth generation.
Jeff Faust: Natives be getting native be getting native. Wow.
Greg Hodsden: It's it's it's it's really sweet. I actually went and talked to the the guy who owns the feed store and and he showed me a plaque that he had from Standard Oil that was given to my great grandfather and you know he showed me you know it said Ray Young and I've been going through my parents have recently passed and they have I think photos from five different families in in the house. So I still have them. I'm trying to scan them all and digitize everything. I found the photo of the guy from Standard Oil giving my grandpa great grandpa that plaque in front of the gas station.
And a lot of people that grew up around here will remember that it was Ray and Edith Young and during the winters he penned deer beside the gas station. I always heard the story as a kid.
Jeff Faust: Now when you say penned deer Yeah. You mean like bodies
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Like real deer. Yes. Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Some like a hunter harvested and they're just hanging out.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. So. So I grew up hearing the story that that he asked the Colorado State wildlife if he could pen the deer because the deer always came into his fields.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: And the people that would stop for gas always liked looking at the deer. I found some information that said he actually sold the deer, raised them and sold them.
Jeff Faust: Oh my.
Greg Hodsden: But he had this little roadside stand where people would get gas or they'd stop, buy some food and feed the deer. Got I've got pictures of the deer next to the gas station. It's just amazing. So the the the current feed store was the little general store gas station. I knew it as a kid.
My mom's my great uncle Melville Young would keep candy in the glass case and the kids would come across the street from school and buy candy after school. So I knew that is the place where I got free candy from Melville.
Jeff Faust: Right. Right.
Greg Hodsden: But yeah, just just a lot of fun.
Jeff Faust: A lot of history in this.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. And so my my mom's family moved from Saratoga, Wyoming down to here. Obviously, you know, everybody landed here from somewhere, but there's a little cabin that still exists there between La Porte and where the farms were at 287 And Taft where that was the first place that they lived before my grandpa bought the farm and just kind of fun to think even culturally how how brothers used to farm next to each other and and families would would live around each other and Right. As opposed to me who moved away three times and and back three times.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Well, I think that heritage of our city, like it plays out into our culture. Right? I mean, there's still a large commitment to loving one another, being a great neighbor, caring for our city Yeah. The people in it.
We talk a lot about how, you know, our city has these incredible services, you know, strive for excellence in all these areas, but in reality, it's the people that make these things work. It's our stories being, you know, woven together and and Yeah. This just kind of beautiful tapestry that we're all part of in Northern Colorado and Fort Collins specifically and Yeah. That's kind of neat to hear. Your your thread just goes a little further back than most of us.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. And and so another another business in town that people will have encountered is a Bohlender funeral home. Yeah. Originally was Warren funeral home and then it was Warren Bohlender funeral home. Warren was Harold Warren, my my mom's uncle.
Oh wow. And so so he started the funeral home there and we when we just had one of their funerals there, pulled out one of the old chairs and said, oh my gosh, this has to be original. Yeah. And it was. It said Warren funeral home on the back of it and Yeah. My mom grew up playing in the house that was…
Jeff Faust: You got like a piece of gum stuck under
Greg Hodsden: the chair. Your name or so. Well my mom grew up playing it used to just be a house and and you know it was quite smaller than it is now and and my mom grew up playing with her cousin in the funeral home. Yeah. And you know just kinda those stories that you hear as you grow up and
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: You know, you don't attach a whole lot of of things to them. But yeah, so as
Jeff Faust: So you were here and then you ended up you I mean, obviously, you grew up here or when did you start moving away?
Greg Hodsden: Well that was after college. So I you know we my dad was a teacher and a coach at Poudre High School.
Jeff Faust: Yep. Is that where you went to?
Greg Hodsden: I didn't. So he so my dad came here from Springfield, Colorado and went to CSU, ran track at CSU, met met my was coaching track and cross country and teaching math at Poudre.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And he only won one state title in his whole career and it was in 1968 at Poudre with a cross country team and my my uncle Mike was on that team.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: And a guy another family from around town Randy Yaussie. I don't know if it's Yaussie or Yaussie. I've heard both. Me what it is, Randy. I don't know.
Randy was a long time teacher and administrator in the area as well and yeah. So he he he met my mom through my uncle Mike who was one of his runners and so that it it just always felt like our life collided around dairy farming, Colorado State, and Rocky Mountain High School. Yeah. And so my dad went to Rocky when it opened.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: And he finished his career there and and retired there. Just got inducted. They just started an athletic hall of fame at Rocky Mountain last year and so
Jeff Faust: Oh, sweet.
Greg Hodsden: He was in the first class of inductees and really fun because all of our even though we've moved across the country three times, all three of our kids are gonna graduate from Rocky Mountain High School. And yeah, just a lot of fun for them. They love that. They love that their grandpa was there. Their dad and their aunts were there.
Jeff Faust: So if you love the place so much, you have so much about like what? Why'd you leave in the first place, man? I can tell you, moved from the Midwest. Right. It's gonna be hard for me to leave this place.
I mean, it's such an incredible place to live. Yeah. Was it was it work? Was it it wasn't college, was it?
Greg Hodsden: It was it was grad school.
Jeff Faust: Okay. Grad school
Greg Hodsden: was the first time. So so I I went to the University of Northern Colorado. I grew up with one thing on my mind. I wanna play football for the rest of my life.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: And that that translated eventually to I got to walk on
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: At At UNC. Okay. And
Jeff Faust: And what position by the way?
Greg Hodsden: I I was a defensive back. I was a Yep. Was a running back in high school. I'll never forget one of the coaches my first day said, what position are you? And I said, well, I'm I'm a DB, but I was running back in high school and he goes, he he just laughed in my face, said, you're a DB here.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And I played cornerback. Okay. I was I was one of those academic scholarship kind of invited walk on too. Yeah. Was surrounded by people who are much better.
Greg Hodsden: Oh, yeah.
Jeff Faust: And then I was. And I just knew like I I actually there are people bigger than me here. Yeah. And they're faster than miserable to be the smallest and the slowest on the team. That was my experience.
Greg Hodsden: That was my experience and you know I say they let me be on the team and so that was good but I during my time at UNC I was introduced to a guy named Dan Stavely and I only knew him as coach and the short version of that is coach was a college football coach. I think he's in the Colorado Athletic Hall of Fame but he coached in a lot of places. The last place was CU.
Jeff Faust: K.
Greg Hodsden: And he he was a Christian and he always told me. He said, Greg, I I got offers to and promotions while I was coaching but I never took them because back in the day I was the freshman coach and I wanted to be the first guy to have any influence on any student athlete coming to our football team. So I did study hall and I was the freshman coach. Yeah. I wanted those 18 year olds.
Jeff Faust: That's a that's a real calling. Mean that's
Greg Hodsden: It was yeah.
Jeff Faust: Leadership is it often includes sacrifice. Yeah. And he I yeah. Mean that's a real sacrifice to continue to be this influencer, this leader.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah and so when he got done coaching he retired and he volunteered with an organization called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an organization that really was responsible for outside of my parents and other good influences in my life. You know, grew up in this town with so many great influences as teachers and coaches. I grew up with, you know, parents who were teachers. So I just I I look back at my life here in Fort Collins, I go, God just put some really great people in my life to Yep. To kind of just nurture me through life when I didn't know I needed nurturing or leading or mentoring and
Jeff Faust: Didn't know it or maybe at times were actively working against it.
Greg Hodsden: Totally. But I I literally in in coming back, I've I've one of the one of the gifts of coming back is I have run into some of those people and I've been able to say to them face to face, thank you for saying this in my life. Wow. Thank you for doing this. You had no idea that I was going through this when you were doing, you know, when you were mentoring me in that direction.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Some really pointed stories of of people course correcting me. Mhmm. And I still stay in touch with them. Yeah. You know the beauty of of social media is I still talk to two of my junior high teachers from Blevins.
Yeah. Like on a weekly basis. Yeah. And they engage with so many students. It's it's just incredible.
But I go
Jeff Faust: That's so valuable too because you're a leader now. Yeah. And and I'm a leader and we're we're both leading some some capacity in the city surrounded by leaders. We both probably have stories of what happens to a lot of leads where they just hear the critiques
Greg Hodsden: Right.
Jeff Faust: Or the negative feedback and it can stack up. So to be able to articulate to a person
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Who influenced you, nudged you or pushed you or guided you in a direction that now is paying dividends over the decades. Yeah. That is an incredible gift to give back even just saying this is where I was at. You did x y and z and I've been experiencing the fruit and the and the faithfulness of those things for years. So thank you.
I mean, I think, yeah. There's a deep invitation for all of us to grow in that gratefulness.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. And you know what? It is it's probably one of been one of the the most joyful parts of my life. The the like it has done something great for me to be able to just express thankfulness Yeah. To those people for what they did for me.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And they and they were just being who they were. Yeah. You know? And and one of the the great joys is my kids have gotten to meet some of those people. And I've been able to say to my kids, this person meant this to me.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: Because they did this for me. Or or they just they were that steady voice in my life or you know, they they encouraged me this way and and there's there's for me, there is no greater joy than to share that kind of story with my kids because they live here now.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right? And and they will experience the same kinds of things. And I think you also have to be coached a little bit to to recognize it.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right? And I did have people in my life telling me to recognize these things or or to hang out with people like this or listen to these kinds of people.
Jeff Faust: Well, feel like that's that's an encouragement for all of us.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: You know, to recognize it, to express it, because we can we can keep those thoughts to ourselves. It's easy to keep those thoughts to ourselves. Totally. It can make you feel uncomfortable to look someone in the eye and say Totally.
You've meant so much to me. You've done x y, you know. But to really begin articulating those things, dawns on me too that in the in the world we live in now, you you can always pack up your bags and go somewhere else. Yeah. And sometimes we need to.
Right? I mean, I moved around the nation a couple different times. Sounds like you have too.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: But some of these folks who invested in you, likely invested in many. Mhmm. And that, you know, I don't know what phrase we would use, like authentic longevity or integris longevity or something like along those lines. Those stories stack up when you are just in a place for a longer period of time and you're able to repeat that influence over and over and over again. All of a sudden there's there's quite a ripple effect to some of that leadership and influence.
Greg Hodsden: Completely. Completely and I I see it I see it in the the conversations that you know that happen on social media around some of these influences in my life. I see that they're having these same conversations with other people. I'm not the only one. Right?
There Yeah. There is that ripple effect and they lived that way with everybody and Yeah. And I mean they were a gift to this community as so many other people are in in what they're doing and saying and so you know back to UNC Yeah. Dan Stavely coach he he spent I I could spin this story for a year, but he the the short of it is he spent five days a week, two at UNC, two at CU, and one day at CSU, and he would spend eight hours a day on campus in the Lori Student Center or whatever it was at at each campus and he would meet with student athletes an hour at a time and the idea was he'd meet with one student athlete. Well, it became small groups every hour because his influence was incredible.
And we literally he would he would literally just some days we would talk about for forty five minutes of that hour, we'd talk about how when he was a coach at the University of Washington, how they stopped the wishbone offense with this particular defense for the very first time in the country, you
Jeff Faust: know? Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: And we'd he'd have the napkins out and he'd be drawing me plays. But most of the time, we were talking about what does it really look like to follow Jesus?
Jeff Faust: Gray, I I mean, like, I'm fascinated by this. One, you are dating yourself a little bit because you've just put yourself, like, were talking about candy stores earlier, not a lot of those anymore. Fur trade off. And stopping the wishbone offense. So that you you've also placed yourself in a particular time of football.
But you know, it's it's usually those are and you just mentioned at the end, those are the conversations that are the context for deeper things.
Greg Hodsden: Totally.
Jeff Faust: Those are the conversations that get people in the room. Yeah. But we're still wrestling with very similar significance of life and
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And is there a god? If if if there is, does he love me? Does he wanna be a relationship with me? And so it they provide context for these bigger things, these deeper things Yeah. Many of us wrestle with.
Greg Hodsden: Totally and and I I think the picture of that wrestling is one of the semesters I was meeting with coach, I showed up to meet with him and there was a girl sitting the table. I'd never seen her, didn't know who she was. Coach introduced me to her and he told me the story that she baked the bread at one of the restaurants in the student center and so she was there early every morning. I I learned my second semester never meet with coach after lunch because he'll fall asleep.
He he was 79 when I first met him. Wow. He was doing this. I was
Jeff Faust: not expecting you to say that.
Greg Hodsden: He did this into well into his eighties. Yeah. The last time I met with him, he was 92.
Jeff Faust: My goodness.
Greg Hodsden: You know, so this guy spent his life pouring it out into other people.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right? It's it's it's what he did. And he I don't remember this girl's name, but she had been sitting beside us behind him for weeks listening to our conversation. And she decided to get the guts up to ask if she could sit with us. And she gave her life to Jesus.
Wow. And it it that picture of this girl who's quietly wrestling with all of these difficult things and questions in her life about personal stuff, about spiritual things. Yeah. And and she found herself hearing answers to her questions
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And got the guts up to ask if she could sit in on it. It's really cool.
Jeff Faust: What an incredible story and what an incredible man this coach sounds like. I mean, may we all live that way?
Greg Hodsden: It it would what a life it would be if we did. Right? Yeah. If we just poured out
Jeff Faust: Just continually investing.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Pouring out, you know, and even even creating a sense of approachability. Yeah. So that whoever can come and join the conversation and and do what you're doing and yeah. Yeah. That's really
Greg Hodsden: So I have this story, right, that that I feel like would culminate with coach. Yeah. But it just continues of people influencing my life.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: Right? Yeah. So I I left UNC. Coach in our conversations encouraged me to go into coaching for the same reasons he was in coaching.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: Right? To to to pour his life out in the lives of of young people.
Jeff Faust: To shape young people in times where they're asking big questions.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. And and so I became a strength and conditioning coach. I went to Kent State University in Northeast Ohio and Kent Ohio. I remember driving into town on January 10 and brown snow everywhere.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Was gonna say January 10. You know, I got it does not seem like the most plea Right. Crazy experience.
Greg Hodsden: I left sunny Colorado. Yeah. And I'm now in dreary. It it literally the town over is considered the second cloudiest place in the country.
Jeff Faust: They're just making mad. Right. I mean, like I I've golfed in Colorado in January.
Greg Hodsden: Yes.
Jeff Faust: 50 and sunny, I'm gonna hit the links. Yes. Not happening in the Midwest.
Greg Hodsden: And I literally said as I'm driving down Route 43, I'll never forget it, I said out loud to myself as the audience in the car, What have I done?
Jeff Faust: What have I done? Yeah. I always tell so I came from Kansas City. I grew up in
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: In small town Iowa. Uh-huh. And when people are like, oh, you're from Iowa. What was that like? I I always tell them, oh, it's a great place to be from.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: You know, like Yeah. I'm really glad I'm here. Yeah. But I moved from there to here and I don't intend to go back the other way. You've done it three times.
You've done it…
Greg Hodsden: three times. And and and yeah, the the journey's crazy. So I go to Kent State, I go to grad school, I end up with with plans to go somewhere in the South to be a strength and conditioning coach. And I end up being a graduate student, they hire me as the assistant coach, and by age 25, I'm the head strength and conditioning coach at Kent State University. And you know that was a goal I had and all of a sudden I'm I'm in, the goals achieved.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. As a pretty young man.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. I have my dream job. I'm barely older than our athletes. Yeah. And and I'm not satisfied.
I am I am uncomfortable. Part of that was I was working eighty to a hundred hours a week for peanuts. Yeah. You know and it wasn't
Jeff Faust: And it's cloudy every day
Greg Hodsden: and Yeah. All the time. And yet in the midst of that and so I learned a lesson through because I've moved to the wind bus three separate times and back to Colorado, and and I I truly love the Midwest, and and it's because of the people. Yep. Ohio has some of the most beautiful country no one's ever seen.
Yeah. Caves like nobody's business. Yeah. Incredible hiking, but it's not mountains.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: And and and so there's just all these hidden gems in the Midwest that yeah, you almost have to just be okay that you're there. Yes. When you're from Colorado. Yeah. And and so so I I literally feel like God taught me to see the value in in the people and and things where I was.
Yep. Right? Live where you are or you're not gonna live.
Jeff Faust: Well, contentment is a real gift. Yeah. I mean, if you can cultivate contentment, you can and you know what? I I've I've met a lot of you. I'm sure you have too who have who have come from different parts around the world and they've landed this beautiful place hoping that it would provide contentment, but it's always been a moving target.
Greg Hodsden: Yep.
Jeff Faust: And you know what even the the amazing place we're in today as we even look out your window, we have just an incredible day.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: If that contentment is not cultivated deep within your bones. Yeah. The luster of the beauty around us can still wear off in the front range.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Completely. Yeah. Yeah. I've I've I've had plenty of discontented days in Colorado.
Yeah. Right? It has nothing to do with Colorado. Right?
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: And yeah, so it just I've learned a lot of great lessons in in my time not in Colorado too. Right? Because I I I have this I have a really deep seated, I guess value that I can learn something from anybody. Yeah. Right and I was brought up with teachers and coaches that said over and over and over to me the day you stop learning is the day that you're done.
And so it just put in me in Fort Collins as a young guy growing up and still to this day like I can learn something from anybody. I I could I could be completely opposed to who they are and what they believe and I can still learn something from them.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And and I think that's been a gift to me that maybe I wouldn't have cultivated on my own, but it certainly was at times drilled into me
Jeff Faust: as Well, this day and age, I mean, that that's a gift that you can give away.
Greg Hodsden: That's huge.
Jeff Faust: You know, mean, to be able to share space with someone that I think you just said that you you would maybe disagree with on something. But to be able to share that space, to share proximity
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: To still have a an overarching posture of humility
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: To say, no, I can grow here. I can learn here. Yeah. Well, that would make the world a better place.
Greg Hodsden: Wouldn't it?
Jeff Faust: It it would it would really I think we're all probably saying yes and amen to that right now. Let's have more of that in our life. Well, Yeah. Thanks for sharing so much of that. I mean, I hear so many little rich pieces in in your story and gosh, we are in a lot of ways the summary of the people that God has sovereignly placed around us and mentored us and and may we continue to be those people for others as well.
Yeah. Let's just speed your story up just a little bit and and kinda tell me about, you know, landing back here in Fort Collins. Our relationship personally is on the newer side of things. Right. But I I have of course known about the programmatic services that your organization offers to our city for a little bit longer.
So tell me a little bit about how how you first I mean, not first came back, but I guess the third time you came back Yeah. For this role. What you're doing now? And let's let's dig into Christ Clinic a little bit too and and talk about some of the things that you're doing around our city. I'd love to I'd love to hear about that part of your journey.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Completely. So, I would have never, said in my life that I would be the executive director of a place like Christ Clinic.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Who offers free primary health care to anyone who would need it. Yep. People simply have to call us and schedule an appointment.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. And So let's just get that on again because I Yeah. You know, if someone's hearing about Christ Clinic the for very first time, just want them to get this crystal clear. So Christ Clinic, you're the executive director of that. You're offering free health care to anyone in need.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: No strings attached.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. No strings attached. We serve a population that that is uninsured. Yep. Right?
And that's a huge population. The the county, and I don't, I think these numbers are probably a couple couple years old, but the county, identifies, about over 35,000 households in Larimer County that at the end of the month don't have enough money to spend on health care and so they they won't. They spend it on whatever is the emergent thing that they need to spend it on.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And so
Jeff Faust: Well that ache or that pain or that silent diagnosis just just gets delayed a little bit more because the utility bill needs to get paid. Complete. I gotta keep a roof over my head or.
Greg Hodsden: Completely right? That money is gonna be spent somewhere else.
Jeff Faust: 35,000 households. That's a lot of people.
Greg Hodsden: That's a ton of people and and we serve just under 1% of of that number. Okay. So on on average, you could say we serve about 300 patients a year.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: Our hope is, my hope is as as we think ahead that we could serve 2% of of that. We'll never serve all of them. Sure. That that that's an impossible number.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right? We could have 10 of us in town and we'd never serve all of them.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: We'd be close. But But you know, that's
Jeff Faust: that number's kind of mind boggling because I think as you drive around Fort Collins and you're like, oh, let's have we've got another amazing park right here. Yeah. Let's go let's go to Old Town or or you know, Mid Town and experience the beautiful amenities that have all Right. You know, come to be by so many of us in the city.
Greg Hodsden: Park right outside the window.
Jeff Faust: I don't know that many of us think we are likely driving by or walking by or living by households Yeah. That are uninsured and I mean even that's a little vague and ambiguous. Let's just put it this way. People that we know maybe by name that are having to decide am I going to care for my physical body or am I going to keep the heat on?
Greg Hodsden: Yeah, completely completely. Our our I had a picture in my head of of when my first day I I started at at one of our clinics on a Saturday morning and I was I had in my mind this picture of of who I would see walk through the door as as our first patient that I would ever see as Yeah. Executive director of Christ Clinic.
Jeff Faust: I just think Just like imagining who this is.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. I'm imagining who it is. And it was I I would say it was the person was the complete opposite of who I thought it would be. Yeah. And and and that'll stick with me for the rest of my life because it's as you just described, it's anyone around us
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Could fall into this category. Yep. Our family in in all of our years together, we've been uninsured. You know, I know what it is to go how are we gonna pay this and we go to the finance office at the hospital to try to figure it out.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And so we literally, we don't just provide. So we have a dozen primary care, well, dozen, we call them providers. We have a dozen doctors or nurse practitioners that volunteer their time as our providers.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: They they are either retired or they're still practicing and they give us x amount of hours every month to see patients for free.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And you know we we figure the average cost for us to provide this because it does take money. Right. Is $300 a visit Okay. When we consider all of our costs. But one of the great things about that is we someone comes to see a doctor, they they see a nurse, we have nurses that volunteer, they see a medical provider, and we also have a lab on-site.
So we will draw blood that we have a few tests we can do on-site but most of them then we work with an organization in town that does labs and they discount their prices for us and so we cover the cost of all of that. And really our donors cover the cost of all of that for these folks so they don't have to pay a dime to to get this testing done.
Jeff Faust: I I I wanna talk about donors because I I Yeah. Wanna I want to help people get involved in what you're doing. This is incredible work. But before we jump in, I I wanna ask a couple questions because I'm, one, I wanna talk about your clinic space and what that looks like.
Greg Hodsden: Mhmm.
Jeff Faust: And then something you had you had just you had just mentioned is that, you know, you your family even at one point in your life was uninsured and or under-insured and you're trying to figure out how these I always talk to people about this and and it it's kind of interesting to think. We don't entertain this idea all the time if life is going well. But everyone we meet is about one or two events away from catastrophe. Completely. It's kind of a dark thought.
I realize it's a Yeah. I it's a little bit of a dark thought for this afternoon, but it really is some of us have more decisions that could stack together before we're there.
Greg Hodsden: Right.
Jeff Faust: But each and every one of us, really just a handful of decisions. I mean, you know, a couple big catastrophic events happen in a row. You're in a tough spot.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: You're in a you're in a real tough spot. And in Fort Collins or Northern Colorado in general with cost of living so high. Yeah. Wages that haven't caught quite up to the cost of living inflation, things like that. I I would say and I think we probably have the financial data to prove that we're already not maybe on knife's edge, we're closer to that
Greg Hodsden: Mhmm.
Jeff Faust: Than people sometimes realize.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And again, if it's already impacting 35,000 households in our area, you you couldn't really drive around the city in one twenty four hour period and not bump into someone who's in that space.
Greg Hodsden: Right. Yeah. And and I don't know who in our organization we're 13 years old. Someone along the way said and it's written down so I have it in some of our documentation they said the gift of what we do at Christ Clinic is we allow someone to come to the doctor and leave the doctor without having the stress of thinking how am I going to pay for this?
Jeff Faust: Oh yes.
Greg Hodsden: Can you imagine the gift? I I can imagine the gift because I've been in that spot.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: How am I gonna pay for this? I I would imagine all of us have been in the spot. How am I gonna pay for this? We literally if if we wanna put some meat on the bone, we let people see the doctor and leave without having to think how am I gonna pay for this?
Jeff Faust: It's and it's a you know those aren't small bills. No. And so that is now in terms of like an individual or a family budget, that's money that can be redirected. So you're not just solving.
Now there is a ripple effect to that because you're caring for their body. You're you're hopefully addressing some things that could be compounded if they're not addressed. But the money that would go there can go to another area. So you're not only taking the stress away from there, maybe taking the stress away. Yeah.
The financial impact of that has gotta have Yeah. Reaching effects into that family system.
Greg Hodsden: Completely and and when you're talking about you know, there are so many issues. I'm no doctor, right? I've been a pastor my whole life.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: I've been a business owner and I've been a coach. Okay. Nothing near a
Jeff Faust: doctor. You've lived some life.
Greg Hodsden: I mean Yeah. Yeah. It's it's my yeah. You wanna talk about a roller coaster. I've I've I've been the operator.
Jeff Faust: I will say I mean, hearing though, you say that, they're like coach, business leader, pastor, executive director of a of a healthcare nonprofit.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: I do hear a lot of leadership in those
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Well,
Jeff Faust: I hear a lot of caring for people, empowering people. I mean, you can't be in those things if you're not great at leading people.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Well, I I'll take that as a compliment. So thank you. And and I'll also say, if I wouldn't have been around great leaders in all the places I've been, I wouldn't I wouldn't be able to be in the place I am now. Yeah.
I wouldn't I wouldn't, you know, I I don't do too many original things. I I repeat the great things other people have done with me.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: And I I think that's the gift of of you know, I I would say to everybody, if there's anything you should do in life, be coachable. Mhmm. Right? Because you you will go so much further in life if you're coachable than if you're not.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And so I'd like to think I was a coachable guy that learned a lot of things along the way that that I'm just repeating them. I tell our staff all the time as we go through different different meetings. I'm literally this guy taught me this. This lady taught me this. You know and and I love giving the credit to those people because that was a gift to me and so we wanna do that as an organization, a non profit in Fort Collins.
We wanna we wanna be that kind of gift to our city Yeah. That that other people have been to us and we happen to do it through health care and and that requires you know, I I say Christ Clinic is our volunteers because without our volunteers we we are nothing.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: Christ Clinic is our donors because without our donors we aren't anything. Yeah. We're just a bunch of people trying to figure something out.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: But with them, we we get to do the activity of of providing health care for people and and and solving one problem that might may solve others, right? Like like there we see so much related to diabetes and high blood pressure, things that are solvable maybe just with life change.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: But without being able to get say blood work done, you don't know what to do. Right. Right and so we're able to provide that and I can't even it's been a huge gift for me to be a part of it and that that was a big part of coming back for me. I've always had to be connected to something that I intrinsically see as having value for the people around me. Yeah.
Right? If it's just valuable for me, what am I doing? And and so I'm grateful that I've been able to be in put in this position to help other people. And so that's what we do. It's really quite simple.
Our founding doctor, who had the vision for this with he and his wife, Doctor Rich Simmons and Kathy Simmons, They started this out of a love for wanting to help people physically and spiritually. They they wanted to help people get the care that they needed, but also receive spiritual care that they needed because they recognize that these things are all interconnected.
Jeff Faust: Yep. And I'm assuming that's where the name Christ Clinic came from.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah, Christ Clinic. They literally, we literally wanna help people take a step closer to God or that people help people take their first step toward God?
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Well, let me ask you a question about that because I I mean, think I know the answer to that, but we're just hearing this together. Yeah. Would love our listeners to know the answer to this too. Because maybe someone's listening, they don't share the Christian faith Yeah.
You or or with me and and they're wondering, that title is a it it could be a bold title if you're outside the faith and so
Greg Hodsden: Completely.
Jeff Faust: Does that impact your care or what you offer to the city at all? Or what does that kind of relationship look like?
Greg Hodsden: So I I would say this from my perspective, it it creates more compassion in us in serving our community. But I'll say this, right, as someone who says, I I want nothing to do with something around the church or the bible or we're here to provide services to people, right, to help them physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: We don't force those needs on people. They come to us with those needs. Yeah. And so we take this approach of being available. We want people to know we're available to help them.
Yeah. And all they have to do is call. And if you don't have a spiritual need, that's fine. Why are you here to see the doctor? We'll take care of that.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: And so we're available for all of it, but we're also people that listen to our patients and our clients and we, you know, it's customized care if you will, right? Right. Right. And here's why you're here and so we're walking down that road. We see on average, so our patients come back, we see our patients on an average two and a half times per year.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: So our patients come to see us and then they come back. Yeah. Right? And if you think about how most of us go to the doctor, I I look back at my life and I go, yeah, I probably would see the doctor one to two times a year.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: I I have made a habit of having an annual physical and we have kids, you know, and young kids need the doctor.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: And and so, you know, families will come in for for sniffles and families will come in for things that like I don't feel good and I don't know what it is. Right. And and we we you know there's a there's a huge there's a huge gap in mental health care and and that I think lots of people are trying to address. Yeah. We we specifically say we're a primary care provider.
We're like coming to your regular doctor's office.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: But we also have a mental health initiative. We wanna help people get the care that they need. So if people have a counselor, one of the exciting things for us this year is UC Health has given us a grant to provide free counseling appointments for our patients. And so in the coming year, if we have patients that need to see a counselor for any given issue in their life, if they make that known to us, we now can offer them free counseling appointments.
Jeff Faust: What an incredible gift because you know, as a pastor in town as well, I mean one of the one of the passages that's kind of just running through my mind right now is from first Thessalonians excuse me where it talks about how we're made body, soul, and spirit and
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And the reality is things are interconnected in that way.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And, you know, mental health impacts the body. Yeah. You're not sleeping right. It's gonna impact your body.
Greg Hodsden: Oh. We all know that.
Jeff Faust: And maybe not everybody wants to have the same spiritual conversation as I would wanna have as a pastor.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: But my faith informs my compassion Right. For you. Not not a requirement for you to receive that compassion. Yeah. But it's gonna help inform how I how I reach out and care.
I I definitely hear that and I've witnessed it in your in your organization. So I'm super excited about that. One of the one of the things I do wanna talk about is so like, I'm, you know, we're having this conversation right now
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: In an office and I noticed because we're we're growing our partnership together, Love FoCo and Christ Clinic and one of the things that we're going to start any week now is the renovation of a new building over a 7,000 square foot building where Christ Clinic will have offices and regular space to see patients, to gather doctors and practitioners and nurses and volunteers to care for more patients. Tell us a little bit about how clinic currently works. Yeah. Because I heard you say something about like a Saturday morning and things like that. So tell us a little bit about how a clinic currently works and also the hopes of what it could look like with maybe more days in line or more space in line and maybe how that could impact patient care how many more people you'll be able to see.
Greg Hodsden: Exciting. So currently, we we have clinic on Saturday morning at at Vineyard Church. Yep. And, you know, it's it's
Jeff Faust: In a non medical building.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. A non medical building. And and Monday night. So our clinic was was initiated and started at Faith Church on on Shields on the Southwest Side
Jeff Faust: of South South.
Greg Hodsden: So we were there on Monday nights and so many great people like that's where people met to start dreaming about Christ Clinic. Yeah. And that's where yeah, place and then that's where the the all the core volunteers you know were started there. Just such a great story. I was a pastor there for for three years and so that's that's my connection to all of this.
Like, I knew about Christ Clinic. I'd watched it from a distance and and so when I saw that this was an opportunity, I'm like, wonder if they'd even bother talking to me.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. So
Greg Hodsden: so Monday night clinic at Faith Church, Saturday morning clinic at Vineyard, and and they both operate the same, but they look totally different. Right. Right? So at at Faith Church, we are in a large room and we use partitions. I am blown away.
Whoever designed how the partitions are set up, you don't even know that people are having a conversation with a doctor. It blows my mind that it's completely private. And we set up a lab behind partitions and so we we literally are set up as a primary care doctor's office
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: In this large room. You walk through the front door, you know, the doors where we're situated. We've got volunteers doing reception. You come in, we've got a waiting room. I think one of the great things that has happened over time is we have chaplains, spiritual care advisors, they actually kind of I say they they do the work that, you know, when you go to the hospital and the social worker comes in the room and and kinda talks you through some things.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: That's their role to let you know who we are, how we operate. Yeah. How can we best care for you?
Jeff Faust: Well, just lower that anxiety a little bit. Yeah. Oh, can you My heart rate is always faster when I go to the doctor. Yeah. I'm not in trouble.
It it I'm there's just a
Greg Hodsden: like Yeah.
Jeff Faust: There's an anxious moment. So those people because they'd begin to relieve some of that pressure.
Greg Hodsden: Totally. And and and can you imagine signing up to go to this free doctor and walk into this massive room. Right. And it doesn't feel or look like a doctor's office, but that's what you're there to do. And so, you know, we have so many great volunteers.
I I think at one time from I think 20 over 20 churches in town, right, have volunteers. We haven't done an audit of that since I've been on board, but lots of people across lots of churches volunteer with Christ Clinic we always need more.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right? We've worked really hard at trying not to burn our volunteers out because we also know they're serving at their church. They're serving at at the food bank in Fort Collins. They're serving all over the city and and we want them to continue to do that everywhere including with us. So you go to Saturday morning at clinic and you walk into lobby of Vineyard Church.
There you know our waiting room is is kind of in the lobby where there's seating and feels a little bit more like a waiting room than just being in all one big room together and then you know the best use of of a Sunday school room on Saturday morning, we might as well put a doctor in. Yeah. And and so it's just it's wild how different it is. Yeah. And and I'm blown away every every week when I go to clinic and we're doing this.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: And it's happening and and churches like Vineyard and Faith and and Shepherd of the Hills where we currently have offices. There's not been a shortage of churches that have said hey, we've got space you can use. And so
Jeff Faust: even to the parking here at at Shepherd Hills. Like I loved driving to the parking lot knowing that although clinics not happening in this very hour
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: There's a preparation, there's planning. There's strategy being and this church is a part of that. They're and they're just really realizing the just looking around. Well, we have room.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. We have room and may more churches say yes to that. May more volunteers say, oh, I have room. Like, I can
Greg Hodsden: give Yeah.
Jeff Faust: A Saturday or I can give a Monday night or I can give in this way or in that way. And yeah, I would I would hope that those numbers continue to
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: To increase. By the time we're done with our conversation, we've gotta talk about how people can get plugged in with you.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah, completely.
Jeff Faust: But tell me a little bit just as the as the founder of Love FoCo, I know I I've walked that building many of times and I've dreamed about what is coming through the construction process. And when I get to the corner of our building that I know is gonna be dedicated for health care
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And caring for one of 35,000 households in our area that needs space like this, Just one individual, one family at a time. Yeah. I get so excited about the lives that are gonna be impacted and changed in that space.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And you know, partly it's just my excitement, but I'm thrilled to have you guys part of of that Love FoCo building, that love Foco space. I imagine that there is going to be an increase in opportunity
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: That you'll be able to to likely see more patients and that also there'll be an increased opportunity for volunteerism and and for folks to come on financially on board as well. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about how you're thinking about maybe the future and it doesn't have to be Yeah. Know, we're like we're not writing a contract or anything like that. Right.
We're not gonna hold you to this, but like as you think about the next you said Christ's Clean's been around for thirteen years. Yeah. So dream with me for just a moment about the next thirteen years.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Faust: What what do you see happening? And and what are some of those next steps that we can be a part of alongside of you?
Greg Hodsden: Yeah, completely. I think I think one of one of the tensions for us to manage is we are we are currently a mobile clinic if if you will. We don't drive around mobile
Jeff Faust: Yeah. But we
Greg Hodsden: set up
Jeff Faust: Set up tear down.
Greg Hodsden: We we we have locations that let us store things
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: At the location
Jeff Faust: Once we do in a clinic on a Saturday morning at a church
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Sunday is coming.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Yeah, you're setting up and and same in both locations and so and and one of one of the things that that I'm grappling with right now is is how do we how do we move into a new space and not abandon anything that we need to continue to do? So so for me that translates what do we do with Monday night? Do we continue to do a clinic at Faith because we serve a part of the city and people live there? Yeah.
We don't know that. We've gotta do a demographic study and and kind of Well,
Jeff Faust: some type people adderable and poverty line too. They're gonna I mean, they're gonna have transportation issues
Greg Hodsden: they're have
Jeff Faust: to navigate. So something near their residence can be beneficial.
Greg Hodsden: Completely and and so you know we're thinking through all those things. We I've just walked our staff team through a planning over the next six months. I mean we're just we're just gonna be planning over the next six months. Yeah. Developing our operational plan for how we're gonna get to the Love FoCo Building and what are we gonna do on day one and beyond that these next thirteen years and and beyond.
And and so in general it looks like we could literally have appointments in medical rooms, in in patient rooms. Yep. Incredible, right? Yeah. Don't know that life.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Right? Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: We don't know that at all. Have we have a mobile setup that we use and so that's part of our our thinking process. How do we do that and what does it look like? You know currently we operate on a Saturday morning and a Monday evening. Do we I have my very first doctor in Akron, Ohio.
There it was a couple. They retired. They run a clinic just like Christ Clinic in Akron, Ohio, and they're open from five to nine every night but Saturday. Wow. And I go, I don't know if that works for us.
Yeah. But we can now think about
Jeff Faust: that. We can entertain the idea of adding hours, adding days.
Greg Hodsden: Exactly. We don't know when those hours or days will be. Yep. We don't know if they'll be daytime or evening, but we're kind of looking at all of it and with the reality that we know we're gonna be able to to make a decision and serve more people and if the way we decide to do it falls on its face then we'll shift to the next idea.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: And and maybe we pick the wrong day or the wrong time of day and and some of it depends on you know when you think about hey we can now meet in an office we also have this culture where we're a clinic in a big room.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: And so we've got to think through that and and yet the space at Love Foco allows us to have a clinic a big room space.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And so we're thinking through ideas like do we have a sports physical day Yeah. For kids in town?
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And we can do it at their middle school or high school but we could also do it at at the clinic at Love FoCo Yep. In the big room. Do we do we continue to have clinic like we already do and we utilize the big room?
Jeff Faust: Yeah. You know, so Well, I'm a dreamer too. So now you got me going because I like, one of the things and and and you know, not everybody knows this, Love FoCo is not a household name Yeah. And that's okay. But one of the things that we're doing is alongside of the health clinic, of course, we're also having other services.
So it it probably doesn't surprise a lot of people that if you're figuring out how you're gonna pay a medical bill, might also be figuring out how to pay other bills. Yeah. And so alongside of Christ Clinic, we're gonna have an opportunity for people to fill their pantry with food and get diapers and wipes and and care for, you know, expectant parents and transportation care through our our car care ministry, all these different ministries stacked together. And just like the physical body and the mental body are interrelated and we wanna care for both, so too are so many areas of needs in our we're we're oftentimes more than one need away from, you know, thriving in in our lives. So if we can stack some of those together, that will be an incredible day.
I'm I'm I'm looking forward to that.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And to have one of the bed rocks of that Love FoCo space be dedicated to physical health and its overlap with mental health and spiritual health. We're talking about family impact, individual We're talking about generational impact. The the potential for generational impact is there.
Greg Hodsden: Absolutely. Right? Right? And and when we talk about that, we talk about right? That impact is the trajectory of a family goes from disaster to thriving.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: You know, that's the potential of it.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And and and I think we all theoretically, we all know those things and and now collectively boots on the ground together. Right? We're we're excited about being able to have those things stacked, those other non profits and ministries working together because one of the things we've been around for thirteen years but everybody I talked to has never heard about us.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: You know? Well, we're gonna
Jeff Faust: help change that.
Greg Hodsden: That's part of what we're doing is just trying to get some exposure and stacking those things together does that for a community that needs. You know, if you're there for wipes and some food for the pantry, you're probably in a position where you could see a doctor for free.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And we wanna be that for people.
Jeff Faust: And if you're there for diapers and wipes, you have a child. That will need to see a doctor.
Greg Hodsden: Right. And that's an interesting thing. There's we don't see a ton of kids. We see a few.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: But and that's because of how Medicaid is more accessible to to families to kids in the families than it is the adults.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: Right? So, it's easier to get your kids in, CHP Plus Yep. Than it is for mom and dad maybe to get, on Medicaid. Sure. So, we don't even ask people for that.
If if if we have people that see us that are uninsured and we recognize that they could qualify for services, we help them get connected to those services and the people they need to talk to because while we can help them, there's probably some greater help if they qualify for some services. Right. So that's another gift of what we do and what all these organizations can do together is is get people in the right places because when you're stressed out about any one of those things in your life that you can't supply for your family, I know this is a dad and as a husband, it pains me when I can't provide for my family and the stress that comes with that in a situation where you're financially strapped, you can't even think straight. You can't even think who do I need to call, let alone find where they're at.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And so now, to be able to expose people to one place with many resources, it's a gift.
Jeff Faust: Huge gift.
Greg Hodsden: A gift they might not even know they need.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's it's just really it's really challenging to be forward thinking when you're trying to survive today.
Greg Hodsden: Completely.
Jeff Faust: And so when you're talking about kind of, you know, providing for all those different areas, maybe knocking down some of that stress level, that undercurrent of anxiety that we all kind of have in our society, it spikes in that big way when you're missing one of those buckets. Yeah. And so to be able to provide that, I mean, it will help Yeah. People incredibly. I I I imagine I'd like to finish Yeah.
Here with this conversation. I imagine that you could use more help. Completely. Every nonprofit I've never met a nonprofit leader who's like, actually we have enough volunteers and money. So we're good on that.
So, you know, I just wanna give you space Yeah. To say, we need more docs, nurses Yeah. Volunteers. This is where we could use help financially. I don't know what those answers are for you.
Yeah. So I'd love to just give you space to freely tell us your needs and how we can come alongside of you to advance this mission and care for more people.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Completely. We we're we're a Christ centered organization and so we're we certainly look for volunteers that would say, I I wanna I wanna partner up. I wanna shoulder up. I wanna link arms around that Christ-centered mission, which which is simply to provide primary health care services, but but we wanna care for all the whole person.
Yep. Right? And and so because of who we are, you know, we are looking for that Christ following healthcare provider, nurse, and person who wants to give their time to serve, you know, the community. Yeah. If you read the Bible, it doesn't take too long to get to a place to go, God cares about the sick and the poor.
And so I say all the time to the people around me, God's never gonna give up on the sick and the poor and so he's never gonna give up on Christ Clinic and and we're gonna be here. Yep. You know and and until God calls us onto something else or or or calls us home. Right? God's never gonna give up on that and we shouldn't either.
You know, the the call from the bible from God to us is love me with all that you are and and love people.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: And and and if you boil down what we're doing, that's what we're doing. And and so it's a unique mission that maybe doesn't fit everybody, but at the same time, I think people understand helping people.
Jeff Faust: Yes.
Greg Hodsden: And and so we have medical and non medical volunteers. We have people that do reception and checkout. We have people that are just, we call them hosts. They just it's weird. You don't go to the doctor.
I mean, you go to the doctor and you sit around in a waiting room, usually a cold waiting room with a magazine or or your phone. Yep. And you wait till they call your name. We actually have people that will hang out and chat and we recognize it could be a really stressful situation for some people. We've had some people that come in by themselves with some really heavy stuff in their life and that's why they're there.
Yeah. And it's been perfectly okay for them to have a host or a chaplain to talk to. Yep. That's been part of their care and it's been welcomed and and when it's not we we're just there to to offer it.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And and so Translators? Do you need mean Yeah. So translators is a huge need. It's it's unique because not everybody can translate medical terms. And that's something that I didn't
Jeff Faust: know. Right.
Greg Hodsden: And we actually have one of our staff is a translator and she's actually put together a program to help our translators understand medical translation.
Jeff Faust: Well, don't want to get those words wrong.
Greg Hodsden: I can't even spell most of them. And so I can't imagine trying to interpret one of some of those words that might not translate directly. And so it's also important that we have translators that understand that they're not there to help the patient make decisions. Right. That they're just there to tell the patient what the doctor said.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: It's a really fine line because all of our volunteers are there to help. Yeah. And so we we have to be cautious that Right. We're just translating.
Jeff Faust: Well, think that's mean, I mean, you know, not only the faith background that's informing your mission, of course. Yeah. It would be appropriate to have your own onboarding process as you're looking for key volunteers with But there are some intricacies. There's some complexities to the healthcare space
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: That like maybe mowing your neighbor's lawn don't include.
Greg Hodsden: Right.
Jeff Faust: Right. It's a it's a different bucket. There's there's greater liability probably.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: I would imagine your nonprofit has to carry insurance that like, you know, the average person doesn't have to Yeah. Carry
Greg Hodsden: so get this. Here here's the gift that people might not expect. We get I don't think I'm exposing anything. We get free health we get free malpractice insurance from the government.
Jeff Faust: Wow. That's awesome.
Greg Hodsden: Because we don't have paid providers.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: And so, when when it's real easy for people to be angry at the government for any number of things, they're actually allowing us to be in business Yeah. Because of what they're providing for us and without it we don't exist.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Quite honestly because we can't afford
Jeff Faust: Well, it be a crazy
Greg Hodsden: malpractice Yeah. Insurance cost. So there is this real incredible interworking of staff and volunteers and government aged. We we we have other insurance we pay for and and we need our donors for that. Yeah.
And and so Let's talk about that. Yeah. So, yeah, the need for volunteers and we're a nonprofit. We we we have our funding comes from individual donors, grants, churches, and businesses. And I've been, you know, a pastor most of my life.
I've also been in the nonprofit world in in a with another organization. And as well you have like we we both understand
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: The fundraising. Feel like I've got a lot to learn from Jeff.
Jeff Faust: I feel like I drink coffee for a living. I drink coffee and I ask for support.
Greg Hodsden: That's what I do. Yes. And and and yet you know, we those are all funding sources we need and and we we can't rely on one of them completely, but we have to rely on all four of them. Right? And and yet I come to the table.
I I I'm the new executive director and I look at those if you wanna call them four income streams and I go man, we have to get better at all of them. Yeah. You know, we need more people to invest their treasure, their finances in the the mission of Christ Clinic. Right. Because if they don't, we can't serve another another person.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right? It it even though we have so many volunteers, we have we have fixed costs in paying for labs for people in in providing, you know, nonprofits require
Jeff Faust: Did you say that early earlier did you say it's about this much to care for?
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. So so we we're a part of a group in Colorado called Colorado Safety Net Clinics.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Greg Hodsden: And the free clinics around Colorado and so that group has has pooled their numbers and come up with an average cost for a free clinic to provide services, to provide one patient visit is about $300.
Jeff Faust: that's a number to just I mean, there are people, you know, I I wanna give to a patient. I I wanna take care of a patient. I I Yeah. And if they're coming two and a half times a year Yeah. That doesn't take a lot of math.
I can give $750 a year. Right.
Greg Hodsden: And and yeah. And you've covered the cost of one patient
Jeff Faust: for an entire year. I mean, that's in that's a that's a pretty especially when we talk about even 35,000 households in our area are in need of this. That can still be too big. We drive around and we forget about it. But Yeah.
Okay. I am sponsoring scholarshiping whatever however you wanna think. One patient through Christ Clinic every year. I can get on board
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: For something like that.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. And and and so currently, we serve about 300 patients.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Greg Hodsden: We'd like to serve 600.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Greg Hodsden: Right?
Jeff Faust: Well, even this conversation of where you're at and where you could be.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. It's not just the conversation of how do I strategize a a plan from going to a clinic here or there to clinic space. Yeah. Consistent space. Yeah.
But it's also what is that gonna take volunteer wise? What is that gonna take strategically? What is that gonna take financially?
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. Right.
Jeff Faust: Because now you're getting the opportunity for more space.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: But you know, non profits still need income in order to make this stuff happen.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah. And and and there's you know, I have to have coffee and ask for money too and so but but the the reality is there are like-minded, like-hearted people all over Larimer County, Fort Collins and it it it literally is right connecting our passion, our heart to help the people around us and and it is as simple as I'm not a doctor, I can't do that but I can give $300 to make sure a patient can be seen.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Greg Hodsden: And you know, it just boils down. I I say it this way. I go, I I like to work from ahead not behind. And so I literally have been telling our staff and our board, we need 5,000 $100 gifts.
Jeff Faust: I love that.
Greg Hodsden: That's what we need.
Jeff Faust: I love
Greg Hodsden: that year. Yeah. 5,000 $100 gifts and and I think about Fort Collins. The Fort Collins I left as as a high school senior was 80 some thousand people. Yeah.
You know, half the size of what Fort Collins is today. And and those 5,000 people could be in Fort Collins. They they're certainly in Larimer County and and we all have friends that would align with the same kind of heart and Well,
Jeff Faust: one of the things I've learned is this city is generous. I mean, they they wanna make a difference.
Greg Hodsden: Completely.
Jeff Faust: And there are folks that were surrounded by everyday too who also have the financial means to make a pretty significant difference. Right. And I've been impressed time and time again about how generous some of these communities, some of these streams, you said individuals. Yeah. Foundation Foundations, grants, churches, businesses.
There are quite a few generous people that I imagine as folks listen to this conversation, they're going to wanna get involved. Yeah. They're going to wanna support you. We're gonna put a bunch of information in the show notes. We'll put links there.
I imagine there's a bunch of ways that we can reach out whether that's a website.
Greg Hodsden: Yep.
Jeff Faust: Socials and and different things that we can Yeah. Follow you on and find you about. We'll we'll make sure all that's in the notes
Greg Hodsden: and Yeah. Completely. Yeah. We've as early as next week, it feels late to say this at a podcast on the eighteenth, but Yeah. Next week on the twenty fourth, we're having our annual fundraiser at Canvas Stadium and Yep.
You know people can still go to our website and buy tickets for that. Yeah. And that's a place where we get to celebrate the people that really are Christ Clinic and our providers and our volunteers and our donors but we also get to expose people to who we are as guests at that event. Yeah, there's all the online ways you can find us and we we have a great, know, if a person wants to serve, we connect them to Lisa on our staff and and she gets them engaged in the process and and we go from there and and so when we ask people to serve, can you serve at one clinic a month? Yeah.
You know, can you give us four hours a month and it it's worked out really well and and it gives us this it it kinda makes our family a little bit bigger every time. I I'm blown away. We have lab techs that volunteer, you know? Yeah. And that blows me away.
Jeff Faust: Well, learned that today. I didn't know you guys were drawing blood and doing that kinda stuff.
Greg Hodsden: Completely.
Jeff Faust: And there's I've I just I'm so excited. Again, thank you. I mean, I truly.
Greg Hodsden: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: I can't wait for us to be able to tell this story more and more and more.
Greg Hodsden: Me too.
Jeff Faust: There are lives that are being impacted in small ways and big ways. A lot we, you know, we we always talk. We as a team, we say a lot. We wanna love our city one life at a time. Yeah.
That's kind of a the mantra of Love FoCo. We wanna love our city one life at a time. And I can't think of a better organization to kind of promote and and say, hey, we need to get more people behind what you guys are doing. Yeah. Because you're truly doing that.
You're loving our city one life at a time. And so, Greg, thank you so much again for the time. This has been great. I as the days move forward, as the months move forward, as the years move forward, look forward to having more of these conversations. Likewise.
I look forward to reflecting in the next five, ten, fifteen years saying, man, look at what has happened. Look at what has grown. And let's celebrate, continue to celebrate all these lives that have been impacted and changed still. Thank you so much.
Greg Hodsden: It's amazing. Thank you, Jeff.
Jeff Faust: And like I said, we'll put all the information in the podcast notes and thanks again for listening to everyone who is out there. Check out Christ Clinic, get involved as you can, and join this incredible movement of all these lives being changed all around us. Thanks.
Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Love FoCo Show. If today's conversation inspired you, share it with a friend who loves Fort Collins as much as you do. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review. It helps more people discover us. To learn more about Love FoCo and find opportunities for loving our city one life at a time, visit lovefoco.com. For now, keep loving Fort Collins well.
