LAKELAND — The congregation of First United Methodist church here and numerous groups in Lakeland have banded together to provide a free health care clinic for the poor and uninsured of the greater Lakeland area.

The Lakeland Volunteers In Medicine (LVIM) clinic has been operating since mid-February through a partnership of The Watson Clinic Foundation, the religious community, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, the city of Lakeland, Florida Southern College and the University of South Florida medical school, among others. It offers free primary, dental, pediatric, pharmaceutical and eye care, as well as mental health and pastoral counseling.

To qualify for its services, patients must live or work in the greater Lakeland area, have no other health insurance for the service they are seeking, and have a family income level at 100 percent or below federal poverty guidelines. Nearly 450 patients had been approved for clinical care by the end of February.

"It’s an incredible kind of networking that’s occurred. That’s really the strength of the project," said the Rev. Tom McCloskey, associate pastor at First Church, Lakeland, who sits on the clinic’s board along with other area clergy.

Initiative for the project began almost three years ago with conversations between retired radiologist Steven Flax and other leaders in the community. McCloskey said First Church was in the process of duplicating a clinic model developed by St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Orlando, but learned that the Watson Foundation "was planning on doing the same thing, with a couple hundred doctors involved."

The clinic is operated by four staff members who coordinate an army of more than 300 volunteers, including about 122 physicians, who serve in a wide variety of capacities. "It really runs on volunteer help," said Bobby Yates, LVIM’s chief administrative officer and the former chief operating officer at the for-profit Watson Clinic.

In addition to providing medical care, volunteers greet patients as they come in, which Yates said gives them a sense of dignity they might not receive elsewhere. Volunteers also read to children and give them donated books to take home. "Healing does not begin with a pill or a therapy," Yates said. "You meet someone at the door, take them in and invest interest in their lives. And the greatest healing comes not to the patients, but to those of us who come to give care."

Groups supporting the development of the clinic began raising money with a goal of $3.5 million and ended up raising $6.4 million and another $1 million from in-kind donations.

Yates said First Church has been particularly instrumental in helping recruit volunteers.

"We’ve structured our entire ministry around people being called to do certain kinds of ministry," McCloskey said. "When we’re embarking on a project, we put the call out for people to respond. We’ve had lay people involved on the board almost from day one; the president of the Volunteers in Medicine board is a member of this church."

LVIM is located on the first floor of a historic former school building on Lakeland’s Memorial Drive. The structure’s second floor is being renovated to become a family resource center housing various agencies.

Yates said LVIM is not unique. It is patterned after the Hilton Head Volunteers in Medicine clinic in South Carolina.