About Us
Circle the City provides healthcare and hope to thousands of individuals facing homelessness in Maricopa County
About Us
Circle the City provides healthcare and hope to thousands of individuals facing homelessness in Maricopa County
How We Help
Circle the City offers a wide variety of healthcare services to meet the needs of individuals that are facing homelessness in Maricopa County, Arizona. Services are provided at our Medical Respite Centers, and health centers as well as out in the field with our mobile and street medicine teams. Our trained staff is always looking for new and innovative ways to help those in need. Nearly 20 years of experience and commitment have earned Circle the City recognition for providing healthcare to individuals facing homelessness.
Our History & Heritage
Circle the City is the vision of our founder, Sister Adele O’Sullivan, CSJ, MD. After her initial career as a pharmacist, Sister Adele and her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, recognized greater healthcare needs in underserved populations. Sister Adele then earned her medical degree from the University of Arizona in 1984 and returned as a doctor to care for people living on the street.
During that time, Sister Adele noticed a lack of sanitary conditions for wound care, challenges with medication management, and the lack of a place for people to rest and recover from a serious illness or injury. That inspired Sister Adele’s vision for a medical respite center for people facing homelessness. The first donations were kept in a shoebox. As donations and community support grew, Circle the City opened Arizona’s first respite center for people facing homelessness in 2012.
Today, Circle the City operates two medical respite centers, two outpatient healthcare clinics, five mobile medical units and three street medicine teams that provide care to shelters, transitional living centers, and hard to reach areas.
Our Mission
To create and deliver innovative healthcare solutions that compassionately address the needs of all individuals facing homelessness in Maricopa County.
Our Core Values
- Meeting people where they are
- Treating all with dignity and respect
- Acting with the highest integrity
- Serving the needs of the whole person—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual
- Striving for excellence through continuous improvement
- Continually assessing the unmet needs of those we serve
- Acknowledging the power of collaboration
- Celebrating the fulfilling nature of our work
We are a registered 501(c)(3) public nonprofit, and a Federally Qualified Healthcare Center (FQHC).
Our Programs
Circle the City offers a wide variety of services and programs to ensure individuals facing homelessness are provided with high-quality, innovative healthcare.
Circle the City Timeline
2010
It began with a shoebox and a vision
Sister Adele O’Sullivan, CSJ, MD, was working as a physician caring for people on the street facing homelessness. Inspired by her work, supporters began offering donations which she kept in a shoebox to pay for medical needs. It was then Sister Adele recognized a gap in the healthcare system. She believed there needed to be a safe place for people to go who were not sick enough to be in the hospital, but too sick to be on the street. Her vision gave birth to a community crusade to turn “the love of the community in the shoebox” into a respite center.
2012
The formative years
In 2012, Circle the City opened the doors of Arizona’s first respite center, the Midtown Medical Respite Center– a 50-bed recuperative care facility for individuals facing homelessness to rest, heal, and recover. Patients also received daily medical care, food, and case management, and other neccessities.
2022
10 Year Anniversary
Circle the City has grown to two respite centers, two outpatient medical clinics, five mobile medical units, a street medicine team, a mental health street medicine team, and a hospital navigator program in seven Valley hospitals. Circle the City serves more than 8,000 unique individuals every year.
Today
Onward and upward
Circle the City has become one of the most dynamic and innovative nonprofit healthcare organizations for people facing homelessness in the country. As we grow, we remain rooted in providing Sister Adele’s vision of high-quality healthcare with compassion, dignity, and respect.
