Maine Family Planning

Community-based services: 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 network of directly operated clinics and subgrantee partners, mfp serves 34,519 low-income mainers annually with expert and confidential services on a sliding-fee scale that include: - 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 who use drugs and/or are in recovery. 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 county. The wic program provides nutritious foods, nutrition education (including breastfeeding promotion and support), and referrals to health and other social services to participants at no charge. Wic serves low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, and infants and children up to age 5 who are at nutrition risk. Wic served 1,994 recipients in fy 2023. Mfp has a Maine families home visitor program in hancock county. The Maine families program understands that all parents want the best for the 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 the individual Family needs.

Agency and mission related projects: 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. With grant funding from the national Family Planning and reproductive health Association, Maine Family Planning has been working on a deep listening project with two communities of focus: immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from central asian and central and northern african countries; and wabanaki nations citizens including the maliseet, mi'kmaq, passamaquoddy, and penobscot. The project goal is to build relationships and trust with communities, ultimately leading to increased cultural competence and sensitivity for the organization and improved health care quality and outcomes for the communities.

Education and research projects: 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, 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, a digital tip sheet was created with information about how to start a school-based condom availability program and is available on the website. The prevention education team provided technical assistance and support to 160 educators and other school staff from 89 schools. Over 100 community and school-based education programs were delivered throughout the state, reaching 366 adults and 479 youth. An additional 161 youth in both school and community settings participated in the federally-funded personal responsibility education program (prep), in which community-based facilitators delivered a 9-module evidence-based sexual health curriculum called making proud choices. With private foundation funding, the prevention education team created a lesson plan on navigating the changes of puberty, and puberty kits with hygiene and period products were delivered to 35 elementary schools. A total of 155 community and school educators and staff took part in the return of two in-person curriculum trainings and the annual comprehensive sexuality education conference. An additional 120 participants joined online virtual trainings on a variety of sexual health topics. Prevention education staff presented at two national conferences, three professional state conferences, and two youth conferences. 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 1,000 individuals.