Supporting Local Initiatives
Through the Urban Initiative, the National Institute for Reproductive Health is committed to supporting innovative local initiatives that meet the goals of forging partnerships between elected officials and advocates, and of creating and promoting real policy solutions to address urban reproductive health issues.
Local Support for Restoring Insurance Coverage for Abortion Care
The Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health has worked with several cities across the country in 2012 and 2013 who have taken action to demonstrate their support for comprehensive reproductive health care for all women, calling on federal and state politicians to reinstate coverage for comprehensive reproductive health care services, including abortion. Learn more about this work and how your city can get involved here.
2012 Awards Announced
In 2012, the Urban Initiative is proud to announce partnerships with state and local organizations working in nine cities to advance access to abortion care. The Urban Initiative is supporting local efforts to identify and address barriers to abortion access, demonstrate public opposition to the Hyde Amendment and other restrictions on abortion coverage, and foster innovative locally based actions in support of abortion coverage for low-income women. These efforts will also involve collaboration with the Coalition for Abortion Access and Reproductive Equity, which is working toward a coordinated, movement-wide effort to restore Medicaid coverage of abortion.
Taken together, it is our hope that these local actions will help to build a groundswell of support for coverage of abortion care and removal of barriers to abortion access for all women.
Advancing Local Support for Abortion Coverage
- Austin, TX: NARAL Pro-Choice Texas
- Denver, CO: NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado
- New York, NY: NARAL Pro-Choice New York
- Oakland, CA: ACCESS Women’s Health Justice
- Seattle, WA: Legal Voice
Addressing Local Barriers to Abortion Access
- Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, Section of Family Planning and Contraceptive Research
- Madison, WI: Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health
- Miami, FL: MI LOLA
- New York, NY: NARAL Pro-Choice New York
- Omaha, NE: Planned Parenthood of the Heartland
Click here to download the 2012 grants announcement one pager.
The Urban Initiative supported the following partners in 2011.
Local Policy Initiatives
The National Institute will support advocates in educating and advocating for policies that will improve access to reproductive health care services and/or improve the reproductive health of women in urban areas.
Following up on their successful passage of a Healthy Nail Salon Recognition Program ordinance in San Francisco, CA, the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative will work to promote similar ordinances in various localities throughout California. These ordinances will help promote the use of nontoxic chemicals in nail salons in order to prevent reproductive health complications for employees.
Inspired by successful ordinances to address the deceptive and misleading tactics of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in Baltimore, Austin, and New York City, NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin Foundation, and NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina Foundation will launch investigations into CPCs in their respective states.
|
|
|
Reproductive Health and Justice Roundtables
The National Institute will support two local partners in hosting a two-part series of Reproductive Health and Justice Roundtables to identify and bring together public health officials, advocates, and lawmakers for briefings on pressing reproductive health and justice issues in their community.
The Legal Services for Prisoners with Children Family Unity Project will convene two day-long roundtables for formerly-incarcerated women and girls, jail custody personnel, legal advocates, public health officials, policymakers, and social and reproductive justice activists to discuss reproductive health and family reunification services provided to incarcerated pregnant women in the San Francisco Bay Area. The roundtables will address the issue of shackling, as well as other reproductive health needs reported by incarcerated women.
Memphis Teen Vision will convene a series of two Roundtables concerning teens’ access to reproductive and prenatal healthcare in Memphis and Shelby County, TN. The roundtables will address the current provider landscape for reproductive and prenatal health services, and will lead to a plan of action for expanding services and access.
Evaluation of a Promising Model
The National Institute for Reproductive Health is supporting three organizations to evaluate the impact of their promising public health program or intervention. This funding stream will enable organizations to measure, evaluate and improve their efforts to provide sexual and reproductive health care services and information to hard-to-reach, urban populations in localities throughout the United States.
Aid to Inmate Mothers will evaluate their Women’s Health Initiative for Incarcerated Women (WHI-FI) in partnership with the Alabama Department of Public Health’s Office on Women’s Health. WHI-FI has been educating and linking women leaving prison to reproductive health care services at their local county health departments in Montgomery, Madison or Calhoun Counties in Alabama.
Neighborhood HealthSource will evaluate the scale-up of their texting to email program to increase access to sexual and reproductive health information and care to young people in low-income communities in North and Northeast Minneapolis, MN.
Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon (PPSO) will evaluate their replication of the Adolescent Health Care Communication Project (AHCCP). AHCCP seeks to improve the delivery of sexual health services to young people by bridging the communication gap that exists between health care providers and their teen patients. PPSO will partner with first-term nursing students at Lane Community College to evaluate the effects of the AHCCP.
Previous Years' Partners
Read descriptions of the 2010 Policymaker Roundtables and Policymaker Leadership Institutes.
Read descriptions of all 2010 and 2009 grantees and grant-supported projects.