[2] Approximately 72% of Whittier patients live in the Boston neighborhoods of the South End, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Jamaica Plain, areas with high rates of poverty, growth of immigrant populations, and an overall poor state of health.

Whittier patients are disproportionately affected by infant mortality, low birth rates, childhood asthma, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, behavioral and substance abuse problems, and chronic illnesses, including obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

[3] In January 2012, Whittier Street Health Center opened a newly constructed, Silver LEED-certified, 78,900 square foot facility, its first permanent home located at 1290 Tremont St.

[6] The following summer, recognizing that people who live in North Dorchester faced a two-hour commute on public transit to reach its main facility, WSHC opened Whittier@Quincy Commons, a satellite clinic on Blue Hill Avenue, staffed by two full-time doctors, who provide scheduled appointments as well as walk-in services.

[9] Whittier Street Health Center has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe and The Commonwealth Institute for four consecutive years.

The committee considered both nonprofit and for-profit organizations with careful review of each company's revenue, operating budget, number of full-time employees in the state, workplace and management diversity, and innovative projects.

On October 24, 2014, the committee recognized President and CEO Frederica M. Williams for her leadership and Whittier's high quality, cost-effective health care for diverse populations.

In October 2016, she was recognized by the Boston Business Journal as part of their 2016 Power 50 list celebrating “Influential Bostonians.”[10] and covered in their "2016 Women of Influence" article series.

[12][13] In June 2018, three days prior to the vote to unionize, Whittier Street Health Center CEO and President, announced the need to lay-off 20 employees as the result of the end of one if its federal grants.

In May 2019, Whittier Street Health Center made national news[21][22] when it announced it had diagnosed two new cases of HIV in Boston's opioid addicted population.

The news confirmed fears from public health advocates that HIV use was spreading in MA and Boston, due primarily to shared needles and increased risky behaviors from the state's addicted and transient populations.

The Center was intended to de-centralize the Mass and Cass encampments, where individuals are regularly tempted by an open-air drug market, and to increase access to health care, social services, and support to unhoused and vulnerable adults.

In response to the migrant crisis in Roxbury, the Day Engagement Center expanded operations to evenings and Saturdays and also increased capacity to serve 30 individuals on-site at any given time.