Maine Family Planning

Maine Family Planning (mfp) provides funding, technical support, and quality assurance to 44 clinics statewide, in addition to offering direct services at 18 clinics in augusta, bangor, belfast, calais, damariscotta, dexter, ellsworth, farmington, fort kent, houlton, lewiston, machias, norway, presque isle, rumford, skowhegan, thomaston, and waterville. Through this combination of directly operated clinics and subgrantee partners, mfp's network serves 31,473 low-income mainers annually with expert and confidential services on a sliding-fee scale including: "comprehensive and medically accurate reproductive health care information to help clients make informed decisions about their reproductive health and lives; "gynecological exams; "pregnancy testing and options counseling; "Family Planning, including first-trimester medication and aspiration abortion care services; "emergency contraception; "std and hiv testing and treatment; "screenings for reproductive cancers; "colposcopy for evaluation of abnormal pap tests; and "gender-affirming care. Mfp's reproductive empowerment project (rep) increases access to clinical services for people who are high risk for adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes, particularly people with substance use disorder. Rep outreach coordinators bring testing, contraception, and prevention resources to locations such as recovery homes, emergency shelters and encampments, and community resource centers, as well as facilitate on-site telehealth visits connecting patients and providers to lower barriers to health care access and resources for vulnerable populations. Maine Family Planning offers high quality, accessible, and affordable primary care services at our ellsworth, presque isle and houlton locations. Mfp administers a wic program in Washington and hancock counties. The wic program provides nutritious foods, nutrition education (including breastfeeding/chestfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services to participants at no charge. Wic serves low- income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding/chestfeeding parents, and infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk. Wic served 2,307 recipients in fy 2024. Mfp has a Maine families home visitor program in hancock county. The Maine families program understands that all parents want the best for their babies. Caring and professional home visitors partner with parents and parents-to-be to access the information and resources that can support the physical and emotional health of their baby and entire Family. Services are tailored to meet individual Family needs.

Maine Family Planning recognizes the historic and present inequities in reproductive health care access that impact black, indigenous, latino/a/x, asian american and pacific islander, and other communities of color, as well as those community members who identify as lgbtqi+ and people with disabilities. Our work is grounded in the framework of reproductive justice as defined by the sistersong women of color reproductive justice collective, and we strive to operate our clinical services and programs utilizing a deia (diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism) lens. Since 1971, mfp has worked to protect the reproductive rights of all Maine citizens. Mfp is founded on the premise that mainers must have access to comprehensive reproductive health care and information in order to protect their health and control their reproductive lives. Mfp's advocacy efforts are designed to promote and protect programs and services statewide to ensure affordable access to Family Planning. Each new legislative session brings new legislators that require education to dispel myths about reproductive health care and rights, and to help them recognize reproductive health care as basic health care, rather than simply a political issue. We continue to rely on a strong network of pro-choice, pro-family Planning grassroots activists who communicate very powerfully with their elected representatives and will continue to be vigilant in protecting and expanding access to the full range of reproductive health care for all Maine residents and visitors. Private contributions and agency-endowed resources fund these projects. No public funds are used. Following on the successes of a deep listening project with the national Family Planning and reproductive health Association, mfp created a full- time, permanent staff position dedicated to community outreach and responding to the sexual and reproductive health and Family support needs of wabanaki citizens. The associate director of wabanaki engagement works to strengthen inter-organizational partnerships and collaborate with wabanaki-led groups to identify and respond to community needs.

Maine Family Planning offers technical assistance, curriculum resources, and professional development to Maine educators to deliver comprehensive sexuality education to youth of all ages. Mfp-produced resources include three evidence-informed, age-appropriate sexual health curricula - puberty happens for older elementary youth (revised in 2024), a middle school scope and sequence curriculum for middle school, and best practices in sti/hiv and pregnancy prevention for high school. All three curriculum resources are available to download for free on the organization's website, for educators page. In addition, digital tip sheets, brochures, and other resources are available on the website. In fy24, the prevention education team provided technical assistance and support to over 100 educators and other school staff from 39 schools. A total of 43 community and school-based education programs were delivered throughout the state, reaching nearly 400 adults and 200 youth. Prevention education staff presented at six professional state conferences, and five youth conferences, and attended or facilitated a variety of community outreach events. A total of 69 educators and other school and community staff attended live and virtual professional development sessions on providing comprehensive sexuality education. A monthly sexuality education e-newsletter, the beehive, provides educational information and resources as well as announcements of upcoming training opportunities, to a subscriber list of over 900 individuals. An additional 116 youth in both school and community settings participated in the federally-funded personal responsibility education program (prep), in which community-based facilitators are trained and deliver a 9-module evidence-based sexual health curriculum called making proud choices.