When you enter Love the Tree of Life Clinic, you are met with a warm, welcoming space. Colorful art and positive messages adorn the walls of the lobby. Examination rooms provide privacy and comfort while maintaining a coziness atypical of a hospital room. Additional areas around the clinic offer rest, refreshment and connection with resources. Most of all, staff and volunteers are eager to pour care into patients. The mission of the clinic is critical to the community.
Love the Tree of Life Clinic is a newly established 501(c)(3) clinic in Newport News that exists to help the underserved. The clinic provides services to children 18 months and up. Services are comprehensive and include health checkups, mental health coaching, pastoral counseling, computer and phone access, assistance with documentation (such as Medicare, Medicaid, TANF, job applications), food services, showers, toiletries, clothing, haircuts and resource allocation. “We assist individuals and families holistically, providing the opportunity for healing, restoration and a pathway for recovery to a better life and future independence,” says Dr. Carmen Johnson-Martell, the clinic’s founder, president and sole clinician.
Johnson-Martell is a doctorally prepared family nurse practitioner (NP). She received her Bachelor of Nursing Science degree from Saint Joseph College in 2007, her Master of Science degree in nursing from Southern Connecticut State University in 2014 and her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Chatham University in 2018. Her healthcare career extends back to 1999, and since she entered the field, she has dedicated her work to serving vulnerable patient populations. “My main purpose for acquiring my doctoral degree was to be prepared to address the rapid changes in healthcare, to understand the importance of quality improvement initiatives and be a leading advocate for high-risk patients,” she says.
To know the story of Love the Tree of Life Clinic, one must know Johnson-Martell’s story. She became an orphan at age nine, when her mother passed away due to mental health issues. Separated from her siblings, she went through 22 foster homes before she was emancipated at age 15 with the assistance of an advocate supervising social service agency. She learned early that charity, compassion and mercy ministries were vital to the transition out of the social welfare system. Compassionate givers made an impact on her life and mentored her to success. She stays grounded by her faith as well as her husband and son, who are both involved at the clinic. “I aspire to meet people where they are while creating an atmosphere of love, compassion, family and peace in an atypical healthcare setting,” Johnson-Martell shares.
Being a new 501(c)(3) clinic, finances are the biggest challenge. Johnson-Martell funded the organization using personal savings. To date, the clinic has not received city, state or federal allocations. Funding is critical to the mission. Local citizens can support the clinic by advocating for its services, donating, and assisting with fundraising. Since opening, the clinic has transformed many lives. To name just a few accomplishments, five unhoused patients became employed, five unhoused patients found housing and two unhoused patients received work visas.
“Love the Tree of Life Clinic is a place of hope and new beginnings,” Johnson-Martell says. “Our goal is to collaborate with many nonprofits and social service agencies so we can be on a first-name basis with them. We prioritize patients who are in active social service agency programs and who need a specific service such as a pre-employment physical, a TB screening or a school physical. We want to be a holistic answer to identified problems. We know that as a community, we can do more together than apart. We are advocating for unity.”
