October 16, 2024
This Week:
- Resources: Hurricane Assistance from Direct Relief, Updated Links in NFPRHA Clinical Benchmarks Resource
- The Bridge: Intersex Awareness Week
- Happening Now: Funding Opportunity from Melinda French Gates, HHS Maternal Health Stakeholder Call
- NFPRHA Membership Benefits: Deadline Extended for Member Survey, Board Nominations
- Events: Two October NFPRHA Webinars, NFPRHA Post-Election Seasonal Meeting Travel Assistance Deadline Extended
Resources
Hurricane Assistance from Direct Relief
Direct Relief, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the lives of people in poverty or emergency situations by providing the appropriate medical resources, is actively aiding those impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. If your agency is responding to storm-related needs in your community or state and would like to request a list of available medicines and supplies, please contact Direct Relief at usaprograms@directrelief.org or (877) 303-7872. NFPRHA also can provide technical assistance with enrolling in Direct Relief’s Emergency & Safety Net Support Program.
Updated Links in NFPRHA National Clinical Benchmarks Resource
NFPRHA has updated the links in its resource, Benchmark National Clinical Practice Guidelines for Family Planning Clinics, to align with recently released clinical practice guidelines. NFPRHA members may use this resource as a reference and to make any updates to their programs’ clinical protocols, in advance of the release of “QFP 2.0.” If you have any questions, please contact Elizabeth Jones, Senior Director, Program, at ejones@nfprha.org.
The Bridge
Intersex Awareness Week
October 20-26 will commemorate Intersex Awareness Week, dedicated to highlighting policy and advocacy issues affecting intersex individuals leading up to Intersex Awareness Day on October 26th. October 26 honors the 1996 Boston protest at the American Academy of Pediatrics against involuntary and nonconsensual surgery commonly performed on intersex infants. As defined by the Human Rights Campaign, intersex people are born with a variety of differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy. Intersex is an umbrella term referring to individuals with various sex characteristics that fall outside the male/female binary, such as differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits.
Health disparities among intersex people are driven by stigma, prejudice, and discrimination. These attitudes are widespread in health care settings due to inadequate health care, institutional violence, lack of medical training, and lack of research on intersex communities. Intersex infants and children also tend to be victims of infanticide, and face barriers registering their births and changing their sex or gender.
To commemorate Intersex Awareness Week and support the intersex community, it is important to uplift advocacy organizations that do this work, such as InterACT and the Intersex Justice Project. Resources from these organizations include:
As you observe Intersex Awareness Week, please use #IntersexAwarenessWeek on social media and take a look at InterACT's Intersex Awareness Day landing page for more updates and shareable resources.
Happening Now
Funding Opportunity from Melinda French Gates
Melinda French Gates recently announced a $250 million global open call, through Pivotal Venture’s “Action for Women’s Health” competition. Grants will fund organizations that are improving women’s mental and physical health, including reproductive health and access to abortion, both in the United States and internationally. Grants will range from $1 million to $5 million and are meant to support small organizations, like NFPRHA members. Eligible organizations' approaches should center equity and be poised to scale that work. Lever for Change will manage the competition and aims to start making the grants to winners by the end of 2025. For more information on eligibility, rules, and timeline click here.
Updates from the HHS Maternal Health Stakeholder Call
During the September 25 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Maternal Health Stakeholder Call, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of Reproductive Health shared that it recently made 52 awards, supporting 46 states and 6 US territories and freely associated states, for the Enhancing Reviews and Surveillance to Eliminate Maternal Mortality (ERASE MM) program. This funding supports agencies and organizations that coordinate and manage maternal mortality review committees (MMRCs) to identify, review, and characterize pregnancy-related deaths; and identify prevention opportunities.
By facilitating a better understanding of the drivers of maternal mortality and pregnancy-related complications, as well as associated inequities, MMRC findings can illuminate those interventions that are likely to be most effective. Health care providers that deliver care to patients during the pregnancy and postpartum periods – including family planning and sexual health service providers – were encouraged to review the reports and bulletins regularly released through the MMRCs in their states, as they often illuminate opportunities for partnership. NFPRHA also encourages family planning providers to look for lack of representation on their state’s MMRCs and get involved when opportunities exist. The maternal health crisis requires thoughtful action on multiple fronts, making it critical for MMRCs to have inclusive and diverse representation from key stakeholder groups when making recommendations.
The Division of Reproductive Health also reported on the recent automation of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), a population-based surveillance system that provides ongoing data on the health of birthing people and infants. NFPRHA members typically use PRAMS data for needs assessment and strategic planning. The most recent PRAMS data set also includes new questions on the social determinants of health for 21 states.
NFPRHA Membership Benefits
 Deadline Extended to Friday, October 25: NFPRHA Membership Survey
NFPRHA is interested in receiving feedback from its members related to the strategic direction of our work, as well as member preferences related to communication frequency and future convenings. This feedback will be collected by survey, which takes approximately twenty minutes to complete. All completed responses will be entered into a random drawing for four $25 Amazon gift cards.
To garner even more responses, the survey will now remain open until Friday, October 25 at 5:00 p.m. ET. All NFPRHA members are encouraged to complete the survey, and NFPRHA welcomes entries from multiple employees at member organizations.
Please contact Amanda Kimber, Senior Director, Membership, at akimber@nfprha.org with any questions.
Call for Nominations: NFPRHA Board of Directors
NFPRHA is seeking leaders to join its Board of Directors and participate in the strategy making and governance responsibilities of the association. To learn more about the Nominating Committee’s (the committee) current recruitment process, please review the call for nominations that was sent to the membership on Monday, September 30.
NFPRHA is committed to maintaining representation among its Board members and the committee is encouraging candidates to apply that are:
- People of color and especially those that are Latinx or Indigenous, and/or
- People who identify as men, transgender, nonbinary, or gender diverse, and/or
- People in the LGBTQ+ community.
The committee is also encouraging candidates to apply that are:
- People that have experience working in settings where Title X and abortion care are both offered, and/or
- Clinicians who currently see patients.
While the committee is especially seeking candidates in the areas mentioned above, these are preferences and not requirements to apply.
Please submit completed online nomination forms no later than Friday, November 1, 2024. If you have any questions about the nominations process, please contact Illysa Schrager, Senior Director, Executive Office, at ischrager@nfprha.org.
Over the next few months, the Nominating Committee will receive nominations, vet candidates, establish a slate, and conduct an election. Elected Board members would begin their term on July 1, 2025, in alignment with the beginning of NFPRHA’s fiscal year 2026.
Events
Next Wednesday: NFPRHA Clinical Webinar: Using the 2024 CDC Medical Eligibility Criteria (MEC) and Selected Practice Recommendations (SPR) Guidelines
Members are invited to join NFPRHA Clinical Fellow Michael Policar, MD, MPH, for a 75-minute clinically focused webinar on Wednesday, October 23 at 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT. During the presentation, Dr. Policar will explain the significant modifications in the 2024 Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) MEC and SPR; present case studies to offer practical recommendations about how to use the updated guidelines in clinical practice; and offer participants an opportunity to ask questions. In particular, the section on pain reduction with intrauterine device (IUD) placement will be emphasized.
Based on new studies, the 2024 CDC MEC include significant changes in the safety categorizations of several medical conditions, as well as adding one new medical condition (chronic kidney disease). It also includes new contraceptive methods such as new doses or formulations of combined oral contraceptives, contraceptive patches, vaginal rings, progestin-only pills, levonorgestrel IUDs, and vaginal pH modulator. The 2024 CDC SPR include a number of updated sections, including pain reduction for IUD placement and bleeding irregularities during implant use. Revisions in the 2024 guidelines seek to remove barriers to care, increase the emphasis on person-centered contraceptive counseling and provision, and incorporate use of gender-inclusive language.
This activity is pending approval by the Continuing Education Approval Program of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health for 1.25 continuing education contact hours, including 1.25 hours of pharmacology content.
Register for the webinar here. If you have questions about registering, please contact Amanda Kimber, Senior Director, Membership, at akimber@nfprha.org. If you have questions about the webinar's content, please contact Elizabeth Jones, Senior Director, Program, at ejones@nfprha.org.
New NFPRHA Webinar October 31: Introduction to Legislative & Administrative Advocacy at the State Level
Family planning providers and administrators have a critical role to play to promote policies at the state level that make family planning and sexual health services easy for patients to access and sustainable for health centers to offer. Nonprofit 501(c)3 organizations can do this in myriad ways, from educating state legislators on critical issues facing their communities to working with the state to increase insurance reimbursement rates. Please join NFPRHA staff and members on Thursday, October 31, at 1:00 p.m. ET/ 10:00 a.m. PT to learn more about how to engage in advocacy work in the 2025 state legislative cycle and all year round.
In December, NFPRHA will launch a new State Engagement Work Group to dive deeper into this important work. Stay tuned for more information on that opportunity to connect with fellow NFPRHA members on detailed strategies for proactive and defensive advocacy and engagement at the state level for nonprofit and public employees alike.
Register for the webinar here. If you have any questions, please contact Lauren Weiss, Senior Director, Program (Equity), at lweiss@nfprha.org.
Travel Assistance Deadline Extended to Monday, October 21, for the 2024 NFPRHA Post-Election Meeting
Join us in Scottsdale, AZ for the 2024 NFPRHA Post-Election Seasonal Meeting, taking place November 17-19. The meeting will begin with a welcome reception Sunday evening, November 17, followed by two days of plenaries, dedicated times to connect with peers, collaborative sessions on access, equity, and quality, and more content on the future of family planning and sexual health care post-2024 presidential election. A draft agenda can be accessed here.
NFPRHA seasonal meetings are open only to current NFPRHA members, with no cost to register. Travel assistance is available by request for one person per member organization. Grantee members in good standing are encouraged to inform their subrecipients that they are eligible to apply for travel assistance for NFPRHA’s Post-Election Seasonal Meeting, which includes a two-night hotel stay and no cost to register. Member organizations may send additional staff to this meeting at their own expense. The deadline to apply for travel assistance is now Monday, October 21, and the hotel reservation cutoff is October 25.
NFPRHA’s number one priority is the health and safety of our event participants, and our goal will always be to hold a safe event. You can find NFPRHA’s health and safety guidelines for this meeting here (PDF).
To access the information for this meeting, you must first log in using your NFPRHA user ID. Please contact Victoria Rosborough, Director, Events, at vrosborough@nfprha.org with any questions.
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