By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (OBCC) is returning to its roots with the grand opening of its new Central District location on Saturday, August 9. The outdoor celebration, taking place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1711 S. Jackson St., will feature arts and crafts, music, games, a vaccine clinic, and giveaways. Patients, families, community members, local leaders, and members of the Odessa Brown family will join OBCC and Seattle Children’s staff to mark this milestone.
Cora Weed, Director of Service Lines for Seattle Children’s, expressed her excitement about the clinic’s return.
“I’ll just start by saying how grateful and excited we are to be back in the Central District,” Weed said. “Our clinic, Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic, was founded 50 years ago in the Central District neighborhood. It has always been a part of who we are, why we are, and the specific community that we’ve been committed to serving. It has been a long time coming, but we are so excited to reopen our doors in the Central District, just two or three blocks away from our previous location.”
OBCC was launched in 1970 by Seattle Children’s, inspired by the vision of community organizer Odessa Brown, who sought to provide quality health care with dignity to every child—regardless of their family’s race or ability to pay.
Weed emphasized how the new location fulfills that vision.
“When we complete our reopening of the Central District Clinic, we will be a fully functioning primary care medical clinic just like it is at Othello,” she said. “All young people can come for their well-child checks, labs, vaccines, and primary care services.”
She said expanding behavioral health services was one of the clinic’s top priorities, based on community input.
“What we’re really focused on with the reopening of this clinic in particular is what we heard very loud and clear from our community, which is a need for additional behavioral health services,” Weed explained. “We’re expanding our behavioral health offerings for Odessa Brown by over 50% and really focusing on behavioral health therapy, in addition to autism evaluations and autism treatment. That work has already taken off, and we’re already increasing the number of patients we can see in that space.”
Weed noted that the clinic will also provide speech and language services and autism care.
“These are critical needs identified by patient families, local leaders, and community members,” she said.
In 2026, OBCC will open the Community Assistance Restorative Education (CARE) Clinic, a trauma-informed program co-designed with more than 12 community partners and individuals with lived experience.
“This clinic will be especially tailored for young people who have experienced trauma or are at risk,” Weed said. “That includes everything from firearm violence, interpersonal and domestic violence, and youth in the juvenile justice or foster care systems to those impacted by commercial sexual exploitation. This is a clinic unlike anything we’ve ever done before. It has been unbelievable.”
She reflected on OBCC’s reach and early success in its new home.
“Last year, our Othello location provided over 44,000 clinical visits—including more than 18,000 medical appointments for 7,000 patients,” Weed said. “Since opening its doors in the Central District just 10 days ago, the clinic has already served nearly 100 patients. We are just really excited to see so many more in the coming weeks, months, and years.”
Weed stressed that OBCC’s return is rooted in its deep connection to the Central District.
“I would just really emphasize, when we think about our return to the Central District, there’s not a conversation that any of us have about the reopening of this clinic that doesn’t use the word community,” she said. “We’ve kept our community, our patients, our families, and our partners at the center of the reopening of this space. We’re proud of that, and we’re excited to continue to define what it means to be back in the Central District, to grow, and to evolve to meet the current needs of our community.”
