Cherry Hill Free Clinic, the highest-volume free clinic in New Jersey by patients served, will use a $50,000 grant to deploy an AI-powered system that answers and triages patient calls. The clinic fielded more than 34,000 inbound calls in 2025 alone from people seeking medical care.
Citizens Financial Group announced the award on July 27 as part of its 2026 Champions in Action program, which recognizes nonprofits using technology to strengthen operations. Cherry Hill Free Clinic was one of nine nonprofits nationally to receive the honor.
The grant funds Clinic Connect, an AI-supported intake and call management system that will answer inbound calls, sort patient needs, route inquiries and reduce repetitive administrative tasks for the clinic's small front-office team. The goal: free up staff to spend more time on direct patient care.
"This grant helps us strengthen the first step to that mission, making sure every need can be triaged, every caller can be heard, and every patient is treated with the dignity they deserve," Dr. Jubril Oyeyemi, the clinic's founder and chief medical officer, said in the announcement.
A clinic born from need
Oyeyemi, a physician at Virtua Health, founded Cherry Hill Free Clinic in 2017 after repeatedly encountering uninsured patients suffering preventable health crises. The clinic started with one Saturday a month. It now operates nearly every day out of space provided by the Gracious Center of Learning and Enrichment Activities, a mosque in a Cherry Hill industrial park.
"The only healthcare institution that's open more times than us is the emergency room," Oyeyemi told SJ Magazine in April.
About 60 volunteer medical professionals cover roughly 20 specialties, including primary care, psychiatry, nutrition, cardiology and rheumatology. The clinic serves uninsured and underinsured adults and connects patients to nutrition support, financial counseling and social services. Most patients come from Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties, though some travel from as far as Atlantic City, Trenton and Elizabeth.
What the grant covers
Beyond the $50,000, Citizens Financial Group will provide volunteer support from its employees and promotional assistance. Dan Fitzpatrick, president of Citizens' Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions, said the clinic exemplifies the kind of technology-driven community impact the Champions in Action program was created to support.
The program has awarded more than $13 million to over 420 nonprofits in its 24-year history. It is open to organizations with annual budgets between $250,000 and $5 million.
About half of Cherry Hill Free Clinic's funding comes from grants and hospital partners. The clinic received $76,100 from NBCUniversal Local Impact Grants in 2025 and won Camden County's Martin Luther King Jr. Award in 2020.
