August 6th, 2009
Dear Friends of Women's Choice Clinic,
We are delighted to announce the launching of our expanded and updated website, http://www.womenschoiceclinic.us to provide current information, general referrals, and streamline our efforts to rebuild and reopen our medical facility. Our target date for this occasion coincides with a local fundraiser on August 15th 2009, 7 pm, at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Avenue, just north of Alcatraz Street in Berkeley. Please join us for a fun evening of music and some political discourse on the current state of the financial crises affecting the state and nation.
Our most often asked question is: Why support a facility that is no longer open? Because - Medical centers must provide administrative information for 7-10 years following closure for access to medical records of former patients. Unlike a non-medical corporation, we are unable to simply move on to another project with our history of 36 years of quality patient care; we must still provide medical information to our beloved clients. A seven-year timeframe of state-required administrative functions gives us hope to reopen our medical center with your continued support. The state budget has reduced reimbursement to below cost for abortion services, de-funded homeless shelters, harm-reduction programs, needle exchange programs, home healthcare support for chronic illness, violence prevention, and domestic violence shelters with a stroke of a pen. The safety net for the most needy has been ripped to shreds! As health educators, we will continue to provide information and referrals to the hundreds who call, still looking to us for guidance.
The West Coast Feminist Health Project is the administrator for WCC and our staff is continuing to provide education on safe sex, reproductive health issues, and sexually transmitted disease through street outreach and phone consultations. Your support is still needed to maintain this thin thread of feminist knowledge for our local community. We are starting to organize with local groups to improve conditions in the Bay area for the most disenfranchised. Last month, for 3 days, we joined with the Harm Reduction Coalition and Needle Exchanges to clean up used needles at an old encampment in Oakland to reduce medical waste in the public sector.
The volunteer training program for Feminist Health Educators is under revision to be refocused towards community outreach and street level health education. The next year-long Feminist training program will start in the Spring of 2010. We will begin screening applicants in January/February of 2010; applications will be available online after December 2009 at this website or may be requested by calling our office.
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