The Referrals Initiative has trained 591 sites through a total of 425 trainings, reaching 4,739 participants over the course of six years. The 1,833 professionals we trained in 2017 estimate that they see an average of 42 women every year with unintended pregnancies, and an average of 17 women every year who are considering abortion. This means that they have the potential to reach approximately 77,000 women annually with improved options counseling, and over 31,000 women annually with referral for abortion.
Nearly 77,000 women reached
92%
more sites trained
40%
more training participants
27%
more trainings
After training, 2 out of 3 participants who previously did not refer for abortion indicated that in the future, they will refer for abortion when their client requests it.
94%
were “very satisfied” with the way topics were addressed
94%
were “very satisfied” with the information provided by the presenters
94%
were “very satisfied” with the teaching methods and activities
85%
of trainees interviewed post-training reported having shared what they learned with others either inside or outside their workplace
Connected
Letter from ED and Board Chair
Provide partners to connect people to the care they need to achieve health and well-being across all areas of their lives. 2017 was the biggest of Provide’s 25 years: over 1,800 health and social service providers representing 270 service sites partnered with Provide to enhance their skills on counseling patients and clients facing unintended pregnancy. Hundreds of institutions across 11 states have begun to refer patients for abortion care when sought. Together, we connected around our shared value of patient-centered care; provided workers with vital tools, resources, and ongoing support; connected women to the care they need and deserve; and built linkages across systems and broadened support.
As the healthcare debate rages around us, and with harmful changes having come into effect and more on the horizon, all of us working to create a community of health find ourselves doing so at a particularly challenging time. We are grateful for the health and social service providers and institutions with which we partner. Together, we are building a stronger system of care, one that cares for the whole person, meets people’s needs with dignity and respect, and where workers are given the tools and support to offer the best care to those they serve.
We begin 2018 with the conviction that our work is more crucial than ever. With exciting new partnerships forming and more to pursue, we will continue our pursuit to honor people’s worth, including people whose beliefs and choices differ from our own. We call upon ourselves, on health and social service institutions, and on the people who make up these institutions, to do the same through small and large acts that make a difference to those they serve.
In partnership,
Melanie Zurek, ED & Katherine Bourne, Board Chair
Connect the Dots
Nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Abortion is an incredibly common health care need among U.S. women. According to the latest data, nearly 1 million women obtain an abortion each year. In the clinical sense, the delivery of abortion services is not complicated. Yet for many women, diminishing availability of abortion care can make locating abortion services difficult, and for some, put it completely out of reach with lifelong impact.
Health and social service providers play a vital role connecting these women to the care they need. Provide is a nonprofit that works in partnership with these professionals and their agencies to more comprehensively respond to patients and clients experiencing unintended pregnancy. We offer CEU-eligible professional development training and technical assistance on how to give accurate, informed, and non-judgmental referrals for abortion care when sought.
Our success lies in our connection to you. By opening your doors, committing your time, and bringing your unique knowledge of your clients and practices, we have successfully partnered to build a stronger system of care.
What You Are Saying About Us
Survey and interview answers from 2017
Our Approach
94%
were “very satisfied” with the way topics were addressed
94%
were “very satisfied” with the information provided by the presenters
94%
were “very satisfied” with the teaching methods and activities
Our Connection to You
Tools & Resources
96%
agreed by the end of the training that “I have the skills and information I need to effectively refer a client with an unintended pregnancy for pregnancy termination if she requests it”
94%
agreed by the end of the training that “I have the skills and information I need to effectively counsel a client with an unintended pregnancy on all her options.”
Increased Capacity
Now Offering CEUs
- National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors
- National Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
- Alabama State Board of Social Work Examiners
- Kentucky Board of Licensure for Marriage and Family Therapists
- Kentucky Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors
- Kentucky Board of Social Work
- Louisiana State Board of Social Work Examiners
- North Carolina Licensed Medical Family Therapists
- North Carolina Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors
- North Carolina Board of Social Work
- Oklahoma State Board of Behavioral Health Licensure
- Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Social Workers
- South Carolina Board of Social Work
- South Carolina Board of Examiners for Licensure of Professional Counselors, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Psycho-Educational Specialists
- Tennessee Board of Social Work
New Partnerships
In 2017, Provide built upon its previous work with Maine Family Planning to support the significant expansion of their medication abortion program. Provide partnered with MFP to develop an online training to support staff serving patients in need of abortion care. This online training is accessible to MFP staff across all of their clinics, and reinforces the skills needed to effectively serve patients.
In 2017, Provide began partnering with the Colorado Health Foundation to bring our Referrals Program to three rural county health networks. Our partnership includes training primary care providers on how to make referrals on the full spectrum of pregnancy options so that women in rural areas are equipped with accurate, medically-based information.
Presentations and Conferences
State
- “Responding to Women’s Health Care Needs,” Native Alliance Against Violence 2017 General Meeting – Pocola, OK
- “Referrals for Unintended Pregnancy: Curriculum for Health Care and Social Service Providers,” Tulsa Hispanic Resource Association – Tulsa, OK
- “Making Reproductive Health and Pregnancy Referrals Part of Your Practice,” Diversity Center of Oklahoma’s 3rd Annual Mental Health, Prevention, and Education Symposium – Oklahoma City, OK
- “Stigmatized Issues in Public Health: Reproductive Healthcare Referral-Making and Unintended Pregnancy,” 9th Annual Tribal Public Health Conference (Southern Plains Tribal Health Board) – Tulsa, OK
- “Quality Services in Stigmatized Healthcare,” Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs (KASAP) / Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence (KCADV), Ending Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Conference
- “Compassionate Referrals for Unintended Pregnancies,” Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare
National
- Presentation to State Family Planning Administrators, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association’s (NFPRHA) National Meeting – Washington, D.C.
- “Just Listen to Me: Client-Centered Abortion Referral in Practice,” National Conference on Health and Domestic Violence – San Francisco, CA
Connect Up
The workers and agencies we partner with strive every day to meet their clients’ needs, whether it’s in a domestic violence shelter, HIV care provider, substance abuse center, family planning clinic, or primary care setting. All of the systems we work with experience time and budget constraints, and often times are supporting a client through a moment of crisis or hardship. Provide understands these environments and has tailored our program to be responsive to individual setting realities. We will meet you where you are to provide your staff with the opportunity to increase client-centered care and build organizational expertise in caring for clients facing unintended pregnancy.
Our Trainings Offer:
- On-site training with a local Provide team
- Continuing education units (where available)
- Certification of participation
- A model for effective referral-making that applies beyond abortion
- Take-away information and resources that help you in your work
- A detailed training report for site administrators
- Ongoing customized Technical Assistance
Training Structures Available:
Our training model rests on the knowledge that it takes a team of dedicated, informed professional staff to care for clients and patients. Our approach is efficient and flexible, with options such as:
- a comprehensive full day, on-site training
- a half-day, on-site training
- a tailored training set up in consultation with our teams
Who We Work With
We partner to integrate abortion referral practices throughout five of the most critical systems of care for woman of reproductive age:
Who We Train
- Health administration - management & non-management
- Social workers
- Counselors/case workers
- Client educators/advocates
- Physicians
- Advanced practice clinicians
- Registered Nurses
- Medical assistants
Connection
Where better patient care is the motivating factor to bring about institutional change
In 6-month Follow-Up surveys to site representatives
“Just better patient care, just trying to make them feel more comfortable and make them feel more taken care of basically.” ~ Nursing Supervisor, Oklahoma
“I don’t think we thought about a lot of the things that were presented in the training and so lights went on, we were like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ They just showed us where there were gaps….I mean everything that was part of the training, I can’t believe we had never talked about this or never thought about this.” ~ Executive Director, Alabama
“I think providing good care for our consumers would be the best thing. We have a lot of consumers with a lot of variable needs. If this is a service that they need help with, we want to provide that information to them. It’s just good to gain more knowledge to improve our services and care.” ~ Director, Oklahoma
Where stewardship of organizational culture can help create sustainable change
A case study in a current program state
Sustainability interviews with top leadership in a current program state’s publicly funded family planning services, conducted as part of a cross-state publicly funded family planning service case study, have confirmed that more than 80 sites in that system are sustaining the series of stepwise changes put in place by the home office since 2013, including policy clarification, creation of pregnancy packets, and regular abortion referrals training for staff. A systems leader emphasized that the long-term sustainability of these changes will ultimately depend on program leaders’ stewardship of organizational culture:
“I think the most lasting power we can have is making sure that our staff incorporate and believe in a culture of patient-centeredness. If we have staff who truly believe and practice that, then as other staff come on they see their peers acting that way, and that generates some sustainability, but it will take leadership to make sure things keep moving in that direction.”
Provide offers onsite partnership to bring about lasting programmatic and operational improvements to patient care through our Technical Assistance Program.
Working in partnership with your site, our Technical Assistance Team can provide:
• Detailed training reports and insights from your team’s training experience
• Consultation on forms and information for patients and staff
• Support for the integration of abortion referral practices at your workplace
• Up-to-date local resource lists
• Trainings for new staff
• Evaluation and recommendations on best practices to include in all-options counseling
Staff
Board
Our team is a group of people who care deeply about women and the workers and agencies who serve them. We are people who live in and who love the communities in which we work.
We have the benefit of experience and training in HIV service delivery, substance abuse counseling, domestic violence case management, and safety nets health service. This experience roots us in deep compassion for women and the workers who serve them. It positions us to be highly effective in engaging and supporting these systems.
Provide benefits from a stable and engaged Board of Directors made up of state, national, and global leaders in women’s and community health, including service providers, administrators, policy experts, and advisors.
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS SUPPORTERS.
Provide is grateful to receive vital funding from foundations and generous support from dedicated individual donors. Click here to see our current list of supporters.