The Pan Asian Volunteer Health Center at the Chinese Community and Culture Center (CCACC) provides a crucial healthcare access point for Chinese-speaking patients. But CCACC is committed to providing care for local patients with unmet needs, regardless of culture or origin. “Over the years, the clinic has provided free, high-quality care to thousands of patients — not only Chinese Americans, but also people from many other backgrounds,” says Kate Lu, the clinic director and mental health provider.
CCACC’s outreach efforts have focused not just on the Chinese American community but on the health center’s surrounding geography, with recent outreach at local senior centers and health fairs. Those efforts are showing, not just in patient numbers but in other demographics as well. The top two languages spoken and race/ethnicity categories remained the same from FY24 to FY25—Chinese (Mandarin) and Spanish, Asian and Hispanic/Latino, respectively. But the proportion of Spanish speakers grew from 41% in FY24 to 52% in FY25, while the percentage of Hispanic/Latino patients grew from 43% in FY24 to 53% in FY25.
Meanwhile, CCACC has provided more visits overall: 1,786 total visits in quarter two of FY26 (July 2025-June 2026), up 20% from the 1,484 visits provided in Q2 of FY25. The Montgomery Cares (MCares) patient visits have increased as well, at 669 in Q2 of FY26 versus 524 in Q2 FY25, an increase of nearly 28%. To provide those visits, the health center relies on both staff and volunteer providers: the equivalent of two full-time staff members in Q2 and volunteer time representing about 67% of another full-time position.
The health center’s services are not limited to scheduled visits; they also provide programming for health promotion. The center’s annual health fair in October offered screenings for common health concerns like blood pressure and bone density, as well as medical consultations. Each month, the center offers a different area of focus for patient education and free health screenings, and online seminars in Chinese help build the tools for wellness. Recent Zoom seminars ranged from the process of obtaining health insurance to understanding common concerns like gut health and pain management.
With federal funding support, CCACC officially relocated to a new and improved health center location (9298 Gaither Road, near its previous site in Gaithersburg) in December 2025. The new site has space for planned expansion into dental and pharmacy services. CCACC also secured cost sharing funding from Maryland and Montgomery County to equip the new space and expand the scope of whole-patient care.
CCACC’s outreach efforts have focused not just on the Chinese American community but on the health center’s surrounding geography, with recent outreach at local senior centers and health fairs. Those efforts are showing, not just in patient numbers but in other demographics as well. The top two languages spoken and race/ethnicity categories remained the same from FY24 to FY25—Chinese (Mandarin) and Spanish, Asian and Hispanic/Latino, respectively. But the proportion of Spanish speakers grew from 41% in FY24 to 52% in FY25, while the percentage of Hispanic/Latino patients grew from 43% in FY24 to 53% in FY25.
Meanwhile, CCACC has provided more visits overall: 1,786 total visits in quarter two of FY26 (July 2025-June 2026), up 20% from the 1,484 visits provided in Q2 of FY25. The Montgomery Cares (MCares) patient visits have increased as well, at 669 in Q2 of FY26 versus 524 in Q2 FY25, an increase of nearly 28%. To provide those visits, the health center relies on both staff and volunteer providers: the equivalent of two full-time staff members in Q2 and volunteer time representing about 67% of another full-time position.
The health center’s services are not limited to scheduled visits; they also provide programming for health promotion. The center’s annual health fair in October offered screenings for common health concerns like blood pressure and bone density, as well as medical consultations. Each month, the center offers a different area of focus for patient education and free health screenings, and online seminars in Chinese help build the tools for wellness. Recent Zoom seminars ranged from the process of obtaining health insurance to understanding common concerns like gut health and pain management.
With federal funding support, CCACC officially relocated to a new and improved health center location (9298 Gaither Road, near its previous site in Gaithersburg) in December 2025. The new site has space for planned expansion into dental and pharmacy services. CCACC also secured cost sharing funding from Maryland and Montgomery County to equip the new space and expand the scope of whole-patient care.
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