As Gardner Health Services celebrates its 50th anniversary, it’s important to remember those employees who were instrumental in Gardner’s longevity. The organization grew like a tree from concrete to become the largest healthcare safety net in the County of Santa Clara. Norma Avalos is one of those employees who has kept Gardner rooted over the years. She first joined Gardner 32 years ago and ever since she has embodied the grit and determination ... Read More

In the early days of the Alviso Health Center, the patients would often bring freshly harvested crops to share with the clinic's staff. Many of these patients were seasonal laborers who had little or no experience accessing medical care for themselves or their families. Like pioneers of healthcare navigation, staff members would assist the patients through the process. On the first floor of the Alviso Health Center, in the billing department, you ... Read More

Today, no other place is as synonymous with innovation as Silicon Valley. The region is home to the most influential and successful tech companies in the world. Their impact is felt at work, at home, and in our social lives. The same could be said of community organizations, such as Gardner Health Services (GHS) in San Jose, CA.  The story of GHS is just as innovative, impactful, and dramatic as the history of any tech company we may have read ... Read More

       In the 1940s, the City of San Jose began a dramatic shift from agriculture to industrialization, at great cost for working-class communities. At the time, San Jose was globally recognized for its fruit exports, thanks to neighborhoods such as Gardner, which housed fruit companies and employees alike. However, Gardner became the poorest district in San Jose as economic expansion took place elsewhere. Faced with an unresponsive city ... Read More

In 1968, California’s first community health center opened along the southern rim of the San Francisco Bay, in Alviso. Dependent on nearby agricultural and industrial prosperity, Alviso had previously lacked the funds or resources to provide its own medical care. That began to change in the 1940’s when migrant workers migrating throughout the Bay Area began to venture down to Alviso and establish themselves. A new community identity full of grit ... Read More

Before we were the “Silicon Valley”, Santa Clara Valley was the largest fruit production and packing region in the world known as the “Valley of Heart's Delight”, with 39 canneries and hundreds of farms in operation during the 1960’s. Workers at the canneries and farms were bound by one commonality, non-existent medical care or services. We began during the “Valley of the Heart's Delight” and are celebrating fifty years of service to our ... Read More