The warm glow patients get after using The Women’s Clinic in Colorado Springs is like biting into a just-baked cookie that leaves a good feeling from the taste buds to the toes.

“I’ve seen a lot of doctors and nurses, and the ones here are the most kind and welcoming,” patient Lael Cherry-Santiago said Monday.

In fact, she described a wellness exam she received at the clinic as “the least unpleasant one I’ve ever had in my life.”

For nearly 24 years, the clinic, a program of the nonprofit Dream Centers of Colorado Springs, has been operating out of two two-story suites in a strip mall behind the Templeton Post Office east off Academy Boulevard and Montebello Drive.

It’s the only free women’s clinic in the state, said Physician’s Assistant Natalie Johnson, who manages the clinic.

“The need for this service is immense,” she said.

Women ages 18 to 64, who don’t have health insurance or who are underinsured and can’t afford to pay their portion of bills, can obtain primary care services and specialty gynecological care such as wellness exams, cancer screenings, disease testing and monitoring, birth control, and mental health care, including assessments and licensed counseling.

Primary care diagnosis and treatment for coronary artery disease, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension and respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD, also are offered.

Last year, 23 patients tested positive for some form of cancer, said Matthew Ayers, who founded Dream Centers of Colorado Springs and opened the Women’s Clinic in July of 2011.

“We just want to help people, however we can,” he said.

With today’s high costs of necessities, many women find themselves having to decide whether to feed their kids or go to a doctor, Johnson said.

“We want to decrease that barrier for women, so it’s one less burden on their plate,” she said.

Along with tending to bodies and minds, the Christian-based clinic also provides spiritual guidance, if clients desire. A cross or biblical passage decorate some walls, but the influence is not overt.

Cherry-Santiago said she didn’t realize the center was faith-based and, although she doesn’t define herself as “religious,” she said it doesn’t bother her that some people seek spiritual assistance while there for other needs.

Janet Wilcox, one of some 70 volunteers, let clients know upon arrival that she’s glad they are at the clinic and listens to whatever they want to share about what’s going on in their lives.

As a prayer volunteer, Wilcox prays in person with interested clients, or for privacy, patients can drop prayer requests with their first name in boxes at the front desk or in restrooms. 

Issues pertaining to health, family or finances are the top requests, said Wilcox, whose office has a sign that says, “With God all things are possible.”

On Monday, her prayers included for a woman having a fertilization process, whose 5-year-old son said he wanted a baby sister.

“It’s an unusual place — the whole staff is loving and caring — and it’s so nice to be contributing to that in some way,” Wilcox said.

For Cherry-Santiago, 33, the no-cost feature was most important. Though she has health insurance, she said she can’t afford the $2,500 deductible the policy carries.

“This is the only way I can access care,” she said. “Finding free care can be socially embarrassing because people are expected to have an income and take care of themselves.

“Here, the staff is so gentle and welcoming and make me feel confident, so that feeling gets thrown out the window.”

Ayers, who has worked as a pastor at local churches after serving in 12 years in the Air Force as a program manager and teaching at the U.S. Air Force Academy, founded Dream Centers of Colorado Springs after researching gaps in care in the community for marginalized and vulnerable residents.

His vision was and continues to be to “fill the greatest gaps in the points of pain for people suffering in the Pikes Peak region.”

In addition to The Women’s Clinic, Dream Centers runs Mary’s Home, a long-term residential program for single mothers exiting homelessness.

The organization also is working on creating another pillar project for the early childhood education sector.

Patients at The Women’s Clinic have increased from 500 in the first year of operation to more than 1,200 annually, for 12,000 to 15,000 appointments per year, Ayers said.

Financial support from grants and assistance from 40 churches in the Pikes Peak region help keep the organization stable and growing, he added. 

Other organizations and agencies donate new products that clients can receive for free at the clinic, including food, baby items including formula hand-knit baby blankets, over-the-counter medications, greeting cards and other supplies.

Johnson defines the clinic as the best environment she’s worked in, over her 20-year career as a physician’s assistant.

“It’s about physical, mental and spiritual health,” she said. “We want patients to feel seen, heard and cared for.”