Holiday Fund: Ravenswood Family Health Network provides healthcare to low-income families
Dr. Catherine Raney, a pediatrician at Ravenswood Family Health Network, treats a child. Courtesy Ravenswood Family Health Network.
Ravenswood Family Health Network has been providing quality health care to low-income families across San Mateo and Santa Clara counties for over 20 years. The East Palo Alto-based nonprofit offers family medicine, women’s health, pediatrics, dental and counseling and more.
Established in 2001, the Ravenswood Family Health Network provided a clinic for underprivileged families of East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park so that they might receive medical care. Since then, the organization has grown to open its permanent health facility and expand its clinics to Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Mountain View through the MayView Community Health Center. It is one of the recipients of The Almanac’s Holiday Fund this year.
“Our mission is to make sure that residents of San Mateo and Santa Clara (counties) have access to quality health care services regardless of their ability to pay for such services,” said CEO Gralyn Jacques.
Ravenwood Family Health Network primarily serves individuals who are “200% and below the federal poverty guidelines,” which is an annual income of $64,300 for a four-member household. Patients at the health center are predominantly Latino, African-American and Tongan, said Jacques.
Focused on providing community-centered healthcare services, Ravenswood Family Health is one of the main service providers for this demographic in Silicon Valley and one of few that are considered a Federally Qualified Health Center.
If the organization was not available to the underserved communities of East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, many would seek care from county hospitals and emergency rooms, which can be costly, said Jacques.
“We try to ensure that patients have access to preventative services and primary care, so that we keep them out of the more expensive health care systems like emergency rooms,” he added.
The organization currently serves about 20,689 patients of which 7,576 are children, as of 2021. The number of patients has not increased over the past four years due to post-pandemic staffing shortages and costs, Jaqcues explained.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, many people left the health care profession due to burnout and fatigue and some are pursuing more specialty routes rather than primary care, he said. Now, the recruitment of primary health care providers has become competitive within the Silicon Valley area as hospitals are in need of more staff.
For a community health center, being able to match the income rates of larger hospitals such as Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health makes it difficult for them to hire more providers and treat more patients.
Ravenswood Family Health is also facing challenges with funding under the current Trump administration.
“The political environment has not been kind to community health centers from a federal and state level, so we are currently navigating that,” said Jacques.
Although the organization is challenged in some ways, it has still been able to succeed in terms of growth and impact. In September, Ravenswood Family Health Network was recognized by the American Heart Association and American Medical Association for providing quality services for hypertension.
In February 2026, Ravenswood Family Health will open a Redwood City dental clinic in partnership with Sequoia Healthcare District. This clinic will address the need for more dental services that accept Medical patients, said Jacques.
Moving forward, Ravenswood Family Health also hopes it can partner with the Ravenswood City School District to promote health among school age children through its clinics.
For more information on how to support the Ravenswood Family Health Network visit ravenwswoodfhn.org.
Ravenswood Family Health Network is one of the beneficiaries of The Almanac’s Holiday Fund. Donations are divided equally among this year’s 11 nonprofit organizations and 100% of the funds raised go directly to the recipients. Donations to the Holiday Fund can be made at almanacnews.com/holiday_fund.
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