ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Priscilla Project: Facilitating Equality and the Self-empowerment of At-risk Women in Healthcare Encounters Alicia B. W. Clifton Æ Renee Cadzow Æ Jimmy Rowe Published online: 4 June 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract Women and minorities have consistently experienced marginalization and inequality in the United States, with low-income, immigrant and refugee women experiencing the most severe forms. This paper explores how we can restructure one area in which disparities exist, the primary healthcare system, to provide respectful, compassionate, accessible and adequate care to refugee and low- income women who are medically at-risk during pregnancy. This will be done by reviewing the Priscilla Project, an inner-city program that serves at-risk pregnant women in Buffalo, NY, including the history and persistence of disparities in healthcare, activities and impact of the program, and the uniquely contextualized program paradigm. Keywords Disparity Á Gender oppression Á Minority Á Women Á Healthcare In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change. Audre Lorde, 1934–1992 Black Writer A. B. W. Clifton (&) Á J. Rowe Jericho Road Ministries, Inc., 184 Barton St., Buffalo, NY 14213, USA e-mail: aliciabwclifton@gmail.com J. Rowe e-mail: rev.rowe@gmail.com R. Cadzow Primary Care Research Institute, Department of Family Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, 462 Grider St. CC128, Buffalo, NY 14215, USA e-mail: rcadzow@buffalo.edu 123 Gend. Issues (2009) 26:141–151 DOI 10.1007/s12147-009-9075-y