My own personal interactions with the Planned Parenthood in Akron have always been great. I have always felt comfortable and accepted even when I was going there as a teenager. The employers are considerate of your privacy and work to make the experience as non-stressful as possible. I will outline in more detail some more specifics of how people interact with this organization through use of their services but for now this is just my personal account.
Whenever I have interacted with this organization I have always felt well-informed about my options and also knew that there would be someone I could speak to about any issues I might have. I had my first STD test there and have been using birthcontrol and other services from here for over 5 years. I have never had any issues with them, and would like to get more involved in their organization if I had the time. They have always been great about financing options as well. For awhile, the insurance I had wouldn't cover birth control and I was able to go through them, and currently being a student and not covered by insurance I am able to be on a donation basis with all the services they offer, including birth control, testing and exams.
Below is my interview with Education Outreach Specialist Jenelle O'Malley (This was not a recorded conversation and is summarized by myself):
What are some specific services the outreach education center provides?
There are 2 separate sections within the Outreach Education center. The section focusing on Outreach mostly works as traveling to different schools and areas speaking and doing types of “one shot wonders” to produce a change in thought and try to welcome people to what PP stands for and what they offer. This section targets mostly just a knowledge change while the education center trys to target not only a knowledge change but a change in behavior. They have more curriculum based programs such as PATTHS (Parents are teaching and talking about healthy sexuality) which targets parental knowledge and behavior change in adoptive and foster parents as well. There is also Teens Talking to Teens, which has a training program that tennagers can go through and graduate to become a mediator or discussion leader in the program, which has recently become hugely popular. Another program is TACKLE which is a pregnancy prevention group. Both sections deal with a diverse population, not only crossing class, race and gender but also working with MRDD individuals and centers.
What kind of background do you need to work here? Volunteer here?
To work here as an education Outreach Specialist you have to have some kind of 4 year degree in family studies, health education, or social work. Most of our hires come from volunteers as well, which go through an interview and application process as well as sometimes interning there for awhile. We look for highly self motivated individuals, who are comfortable talking about sex and are assertive and knowledgable.
Are there any current lobbying are legislative battles being fought?
April 22nd is lobby day! Staff and those in the community concerned about womens health can join in the lobbying with our legislators. The bill to be lobbied on is Ohio’s First Sex Education bill in over 15 years. It is called the Prevention First Act. This act will ensure state funding for comprehensive sex education. Information Below:
Prevention First Lobby Day 2009
9 am-4:30pm, April 22nd, 2009
YMCA Downtown
65 S. Fourth St, Columbus, OH 43215
*You must Pre-register for this event ($20 standard, $10 students)
What are some future programs or events people in the community can become involved in?
There is the Lobby Day. A women’s luncheon coming up put on by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, also Party Polictics is still going on ( you can find info on these activities→)
We just finished our Undercover Competition for ’08 which is a low cost event targeted towards college age students. It is basically a design competition for a condom package. This gained a lot of involvement from the design and art crowd but not many others. Whoever wins the competition has their design printed and distributed on condoms given out in matchbook covers.
What intitiatives does Planned Parenthood have to get men and boys interested in supporting reproductive rights and other issues?
With a title 10 expansion grant planned parenthood is able to expand the base of people they reach. They hired 2 male workers recently that work mostly with high risk populations of men and boys, such as those who have sex with men (whether or not they identify as homosexual) and those in minority populations perhaps without comprehensive sex education, also target male dominated rehabilitation facilities such as Oriena House etc. PP started offering services to males in 1997. When they started to be able to test STD’s through urine, we had an increase of men using services, partly because it was a simpler process and we could also bring the services to them easily instead of them coming to us. At the clinic we also offer HIV testing and testicular cancer screenings. Possibly in the future they will open a male clinic.
Do you ever have to deal with people who are against what PPNEO stands for? How is it handled?
There have definitely been problems with picketers from people against abortion but very few at the Akron branch because we do not have surgical abortion services. Most of the problems happen at Bedford or Rocky River branches. The police are always called and most often it is handled pretty well. In Akron we have had a few scares, either bomb threats or threatening mail. At another one of our branches we had the new office building burned down by someone (who they did catch), but they have recently rebuilt it. All of our neighbors are really helpful with watching out for suspicioius activity and making sure we are safe.
We also have to deal with Organizations such as ABC (Abstinence the Better Choice), or Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the area. In public settings we are always courteous to them but there is some tension at times and a different tone when I tell them I work for Planned Parenthood. The Crisis Pregnancy I don't really have a problem with because they do provide needed services and as long as the women are informed about other options and they know they can go to either us or them for their reproductive health needs I am ok with it. I do however have a problem with the organizations pushing for abstinence only education. These programs flourished under Bush, were given lots of money that went to basically giving children candy and enticing them in different non-substantial or uninformative ways to be abstinent. We have had problems in the past in conservative school districts who will not allow us to come talk to the students but perhaps need something from us, we had one school district who needed to use our robotic baby dolls, but really wanted nothing else to do with us because it would cause trouble in the community.
So there are definite frustrations that come along with this job but it is something I really believe in and that makes it worth it.
I read about the international work PPFA is doing in India, are there other intiatives to help women from around the world? Has this program grown since it started?
Yes, the sister site in India is definetly growing. This project is a major passion of the Vice-President and CEO of PPFA so they will not give up on it. They take a lot of trips and sponsor a lot of events to involve the local Indian commnities. Hopefully there will be more projects like this one in the future but as for now it is the only one, but they are helping a lot of people there.
What are some specific services the outreach education center provides?
There are 2 separate sections within the Outreach Education center. The section focusing on Outreach mostly works as traveling to different schools and areas speaking and doing types of “one shot wonders” to produce a change in thought and try to welcome people to what PP stands for and what they offer. This section targets mostly just a knowledge change while the education center trys to target not only a knowledge change but a change in behavior. They have more curriculum based programs such as PATTHS (Parents are teaching and talking about healthy sexuality) which targets parental knowledge and behavior change in adoptive and foster parents as well. There is also Teens Talking to Teens, which has a training program that tennagers can go through and graduate to become a mediator or discussion leader in the program, which has recently become hugely popular. Another program is TACKLE which is a pregnancy prevention group. Both sections deal with a diverse population, not only crossing class, race and gender but also working with MRDD individuals and centers.
What kind of background do you need to work here? Volunteer here?
To work here as an education Outreach Specialist you have to have some kind of 4 year degree in family studies, health education, or social work. Most of our hires come from volunteers as well, which go through an interview and application process as well as sometimes interning there for awhile. We look for highly self motivated individuals, who are comfortable talking about sex and are assertive and knowledgable.
Are there any current lobbying are legislative battles being fought?
April 22nd is lobby day! Staff and those in the community concerned about womens health can join in the lobbying with our legislators. The bill to be lobbied on is Ohio’s First Sex Education bill in over 15 years. It is called the Prevention First Act. This act will ensure state funding for comprehensive sex education. Information Below:
Prevention First Lobby Day 2009
9 am-4:30pm, April 22nd, 2009
YMCA Downtown
65 S. Fourth St, Columbus, OH 43215
*You must Pre-register for this event ($20 standard, $10 students)
What are some future programs or events people in the community can become involved in?
There is the Lobby Day. A women’s luncheon coming up put on by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, also Party Polictics is still going on ( you can find info on these activities→)
We just finished our Undercover Competition for ’08 which is a low cost event targeted towards college age students. It is basically a design competition for a condom package. This gained a lot of involvement from the design and art crowd but not many others. Whoever wins the competition has their design printed and distributed on condoms given out in matchbook covers.
What intitiatives does Planned Parenthood have to get men and boys interested in supporting reproductive rights and other issues?
With a title 10 expansion grant planned parenthood is able to expand the base of people they reach. They hired 2 male workers recently that work mostly with high risk populations of men and boys, such as those who have sex with men (whether or not they identify as homosexual) and those in minority populations perhaps without comprehensive sex education, also target male dominated rehabilitation facilities such as Oriena House etc. PP started offering services to males in 1997. When they started to be able to test STD’s through urine, we had an increase of men using services, partly because it was a simpler process and we could also bring the services to them easily instead of them coming to us. At the clinic we also offer HIV testing and testicular cancer screenings. Possibly in the future they will open a male clinic.
Do you ever have to deal with people who are against what PPNEO stands for? How is it handled?
There have definitely been problems with picketers from people against abortion but very few at the Akron branch because we do not have surgical abortion services. Most of the problems happen at Bedford or Rocky River branches. The police are always called and most often it is handled pretty well. In Akron we have had a few scares, either bomb threats or threatening mail. At another one of our branches we had the new office building burned down by someone (who they did catch), but they have recently rebuilt it. All of our neighbors are really helpful with watching out for suspicioius activity and making sure we are safe.
We also have to deal with Organizations such as ABC (Abstinence the Better Choice), or Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the area. In public settings we are always courteous to them but there is some tension at times and a different tone when I tell them I work for Planned Parenthood. The Crisis Pregnancy I don't really have a problem with because they do provide needed services and as long as the women are informed about other options and they know they can go to either us or them for their reproductive health needs I am ok with it. I do however have a problem with the organizations pushing for abstinence only education. These programs flourished under Bush, were given lots of money that went to basically giving children candy and enticing them in different non-substantial or uninformative ways to be abstinent. We have had problems in the past in conservative school districts who will not allow us to come talk to the students but perhaps need something from us, we had one school district who needed to use our robotic baby dolls, but really wanted nothing else to do with us because it would cause trouble in the community.
So there are definite frustrations that come along with this job but it is something I really believe in and that makes it worth it.
I read about the international work PPFA is doing in India, are there other intiatives to help women from around the world? Has this program grown since it started?
Yes, the sister site in India is definetly growing. This project is a major passion of the Vice-President and CEO of PPFA so they will not give up on it. They take a lot of trips and sponsor a lot of events to involve the local Indian commnities. Hopefully there will be more projects like this one in the future but as for now it is the only one, but they are helping a lot of people there.
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