Healthcare is a right in Albany County
Multifund Grandmaking at the Wyoming Community Foundation
Kresge Unrestricted Endowment Fund, Susan McMurry Samuelson Donor Advised Endowment Fund, and Wyoming Intertie Project Community Impact Fund
This story is from our Spring 2026 newsletter. See the full newsletter here!
For most people, navigating the healthcare system is overcomplicated and confusing. Now imagine handling all that red tape with a language barrier, no transportation, and no insurance. Mary Burman (UW School of Nursing) and Diana Esteve (Albany County Public Health) saw this gap of care in their Albany County community and decided to do something about it.
The Downtown Clinic (DTC), based in Laramie, opened its doors in 1999 with a handful of staff and a dedicated group of volunteers. The clinic has provided high-quality, integrated healthcare to uninsured individuals experiencing poverty for nearly three decades.
Thanks to your generosity, the Wyoming Community Foundation (WYCF) can support the vital work of the DTC. Grants from WYCF help with the growing needs of services provided by the clinic in Albany County.
Care provided at the clinic comes at no cost to patients.
“We firmly believe that healthcare should be about taking care of our community and providing the best care possible, not turning a profit,” said Amy Robohm, the DTC’s Staff Nurse Practitioner.
“Health is affected by much more than just physiological processes in the body. We treat the whole person, addressing social determinants of health and mental health as key components of wellness.”
The DTC’s community garden offers vegetables and flowers, a calm place to talk, and a mural by artist Dan Toro.
Inside the clinic, patients receive more than just personalized healthcare. The lobby has free books, healthy snacks and hygiene products for clients. Outside, there is a community garden that serves as a calm place to talk with a provider. Patients are connected with community
resources, and most importantly, treated with dignity and respect.
“Many of them tell us that we have provided them with one of their first
positive healthcare experiences,” said Amy. “Working at the Downtown Clinic has allowed me to pull out of burn out and remind me why I wanted to be a nurse in the first place.”
Recent funding from WYCF helped to support an intern who assists the 25% of the DTC clientele who speak Spanish.
Jaron, the translation intern, serves as a first point of contact for patients when they enter the DTC, providing interpretation services that support our Spanish-speaking community. Jaron hopes to study medicine with the goal of returning to Wyoming to provide care.
“I think of WYCF funding not only as an investment in the DTC but as an investment in an amazing person (Jaron) who wants to return to a community in Wyoming as a healthcare provider,” said Pete Gosar, the DTC Executive Director. “Investments in the next generation of Wyoming’s caregivers is critical and I appreciate WYCF’s foresight.”
The clinic is giving community-centered care in Albany County, treating patients creatively and filling the gaps our current healthcare system does not or will not provide.
“I love being a part of a team of likeminded people who recognize that our society is letting our patients down,” said Amy. “We all have a responsibility to take care of our community.”