Planned Parenthood Of Northern New England

Programs: At planned parenthood of northern new england (ppnne), our work is guided by our mission to provide, promote, and protect access to reproductive health care and sexuality education so that all people can make voluntary choices about their reproductive and sexual health. People across maine, new hampshire, and vermont rely on ppnne as an expert and affordable reproductive and sexual health care provider, educator, and steadfast advocate. In 2017, women, men, and teens came to our 21 health centers across the region for vital services such as: annual exams, cancer screenings, reproductive life planning, birth control counseling and the full range of effective contraceptive methods, emergency contraception, abortion care, sexually transmitted infection (sti) testing and treatment, confidential hiv testing and counseling, immunizations, and other limited primary care. Ppnne continues to serve as a major safety-net provider, and for many of our patients, their primary source of health care. In 2017, 67% of our patients were low income (at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline, or $24,120 for one person), 41% were living below the poverty line ($12,060 for one person), 20% were uninsured/self-pay, and another 31% had coverage through medicaid or another public program. Our patient base was also overwhelmingly female (88%) and young with 67% under the age of 30 and 14% teens. Highlights of our 2017 work include:- providing reproductive and sexual health care to 43,206 patients (through 63,587 medical visits), a 3% increase over 2016 and 10% increase since 2015. - delivering over $8 million in free/discounted health care through our sliding fee scale program. - providing vital services such as: 84,113 sti tests, 11,952 pregnancy tests, 6,328 breast exams; 4,737 pap tests; and 6,410 insertions of long-acting reversible contraceptives (iuds and implants, which are highly effective and strongly recommended methods). - reaching more underserved people through referrals, outreach, and targeted marketing. In 2017, over 22,000 patients were new or hadn't received care at ppnne in the past three years. - launching ppnne's new fund to support care for transgender and gender non-conforming patients. Ppnne offers hormone replacement therapy (hrt) at all of our health centers. The cost of this care, which isn't covered by many insurance plans or by public family planning funding, can be an insurmountable barrier for patients. To ensure that our transgender patients have equitable access, we created this special fund. - continuing special initiatives to reduce unintended pregnancy. Ppnne is guided by an overarching goal to reduce unintended pregnancy rates and improve public health in northern new england. In 2017, ppnne made progress by participating in community collaborations, creating new or strengthened partnerships, and increasing awareness of and access to the full range of contraceptive methods.

in 2017, ppnne continued to reach and engage young people and supporters through intern programs, education programs, community tabling, educational events, and other outreach. We also continued to leverage online opportunities and social media to increase visibility, reach young people where they are, and build our movement. This work resulted in a 67% increase in followers of ppnne's social media channels in 2017. Ppnne's education programming strives to ensure that young people have access to the health information they need. A highlight is our peer education program, which trains youth to serve as peer educators, delivering life-changing sexual health information in schools, community groups and through one-on-one interactions. Student participants receive extensive training and continuous support from our staff. In 2017, we worked with peer educators at 4 high schools (3 in vt and 1 in nh) who conducted over 4,100 conversations with peers who had sexual health-related questions or concerns, and participated in dozens of educational/outreach events. Additionally, across ppnne's health center communities in all three states, our staff conducted over 300 outreach activities to deepen referral relationships with other organizations that serve low income or young people, raise visibility, and bring services and education to more underserved, at-risk people. Among the many positive impacts, this work has contributed to continued growth in the number of women coming to our health centers seeking highly effective contraceptive options that ppnne expertly provides.

in 2017, ppnne's public policy and grassroots organizing staff worked to promote and protect access to reproductive health care, the needs of uninsured and low income populations, and reproductive rights. Supporting their work is a network of thousands of activists throughout maine, new hampshire, and vermont who help us face challenges unique to our political landscape. Across our region, we utilize staffing, volunteer, and advocacy strategies designed to optimize each state's strengths and overcome specific threats and challenges, including protecting women's health care and family planning access. Much of this work is conducted in tandem with our planned parenthood action fund organizations in maine, new hampshire and vermont and in collaboration with community partners. Highlights from 2017 include:- defeating numerous state-level attempts to roll-back women's health and reproductive rights in northern new england and mobilizing unprecedented public support and activism to fight national attacks on women's health. - passing proactive legislation that advances our goals of expanding contraceptive access and reducing unintended pregnancy. Similar to the vermont law passed in 2016, a new maine law enables women to receive a year's supply of birth control at a time. Even more important, the legislation also codifies in state law no-copay coverage of birth control in insurance plans. This protection, which will remain regardless of federal changes, is critical for ensuring women's access to the full range of contraceptives. - working with allies to continue advocating for medicaid expansion in maine, which ultimately passed through a citizen referendum. - supporting campus organizing efforts at colleges and working with strong volunteer action teams across our three states to deepen and grow grassroots organizing capacity.

ppnne continued to leverage online opportunities and social media to increase visibility, reach young people where they are, and build our movement. A highlight included the continued growth of our popular informational video series. By the end of 2017, our "a naked notion" youtube channel had over 54,000 subscribers and the informational videos had received 6. 6 million views.