Venice Family Clinic Given $100,000 by Keck Foundation

The Venice Family Clinic, a primary source of free medical care for the homeless, unemployed and working poor on the Westside, has received a $100,000 grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles. It is the largest grant the clinic has ever received from a private source.

The grant will go toward the mortgage principal on the clinic’s first permanent home at 604 Rose Ave., its location since last September.

According to Fern Seizer, executive director of the clinic, the grant will enable the facility to free $13,000 annually and use that money to expand its services.

The clinic recently received a matching grant from the City of Los Angeles and a contribution from the City of Santa Monica.

Open six days and five nights a week, the clinic handled more than 12,000 patient visits in 1984. Its program is supported by 800 volunteers, 140 of whom are physicians. The clinic is affiliated with the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, St. John’s Hospital and Santa Monica Hospital.

The W. M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 by the late William M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Co., who also created in his will the W. M. Keck Trust for the benefit of the foundation.

The foundation’s primary focus is on universities and colleges throughout the United States, but it also provides limited support, restricted to programs serving Southern California, for community services, health care, pre-collegiate education and the arts. The combined assets of the foundation and trust exceed $500 million.

In addition to special grants, such as the one from the Keck Foundation, the clinic depends on contributions from private parties, other foundations, corporations, and major fund-raising events, such as the annual Venice Art Walk, to cover its annual operating budget of about $600,000.