FAMILY TREE INC
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Mission Statement
Family Tree Clinic is a nonprofit, grassroots health and education center offering reproductive and sexual health services. Founded in 1971, Family Tree is a change agent working to break down barriers to care and foster self-determination among people traditionally marginalized by the health care system.
About This Cause
Since 1971, Family Tree Clinic has offered innovative clinical and education services that center on respect, cultural competence, and individuality; our services and our integrity have confronted head-on both barriers to care and health disparities among our community members. As rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV, and unplanned and teen pregnancy continue to rise in the state and the U.S., Family Tree is a responsive resource, providing access to essential preventative reproductive and sexual health services. More than 50 years ago, the St. Paul community came together at a moment of crisis to create Family Tree Clinic, and today Family Tree honors that legacy by operating as a designated Essential Community Provider, a community-based nonprofit clinic, and — at the grassroots level — an integral part of the community’s long-term health care solution. The mission of Family Tree Clinic is to cultivate a healthy community through comprehensive sexual health care and education. Our vision is to eliminate health disparities through innovative, personalized sexual health care and education for diverse needs. We fulfill the promises of our mission and vision by providing medical reproductive and sexual health services; offering culturally competent services to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community; engaging community members to participate in the health of their community through our Volunteer Patient Education and Outreach Program; running community health education programming including comprehensive sex education and a Health Education Program for the Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing; administering the MN Family Planning and STD Hotline; and by collaborating with other service organizations and nonprofits for the benefit of our patients and community. Put simply, we are doing work that no one else in the metro region, the state, or the mid-west is doing. Family Tree stands as a model for other clinics who would seek to prioritize the sexual health and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable and marginalized people in our communities. Family Tree Clinic servs more than 22,000 individual community members annually through our multifaceted programming—working one-on-one to provide sexual health care, expert information on healthy sexuality and relationships, advocacy for gender/sexual minorities and the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing, and confidential crisis management. Our culturally competent and affirming Medical Reproductive and Sexual Health Services include annual exams, pap smears, STI testing and treatment, rapid HIV testing, preconception and nutrition counseling and clinical care, colposcopies, breast checks, mammogram referrals, pregnancy options counseling and testing, and birth control information and supplies. Family Tree Clinic provides a variety of birth control supplies on-site: birth control pills, the Depo Provera shot, vaginal rings, implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs), and natural family planning methods. Patients may pay for these services using insurance, government assistance or grants, or according to Family Tree’s sliding fee scale. To ensure equitable access to our health care services for our traditionally marginalized patient base, we do not turn anyone away for inability to pay. In 2014, Family Tree expanded our medical services to offer minor illness care, better meeting the evolving needs of our patients. The services we provide include diagnosis and treatment of skin conditions and upper respiratory infections, regular immunizations, and health coaching. This expansion allows us to provide general care to the patients who have come to rely upon Family Tree as their primary medical provider, and who are not able to access such care elsewhere due to cultural or linguistic barriers, discrimination, or cost. Last year, Family Tree clinical staff met one-on-one with 3,859 patients through 5,481 individual clinical visits. Eight-four percent of the patients who sought treatment from Family Tree were low-income, with nearly 50% living below the poverty level, and 47% uninsured or on a temporary state assistance program. While many of our patients come from as far away as Duluth (150 miles) or Rochester (80 miles), nearly 60% of our patient base comes from the immediate East Metro community that established us. Family Tree’s Volunteer Program utilizes over 60 trained community volunteers to deliver patient education, community outreach, and assist with research and administrative support services in the clinic. Family Tree was founded by volunteer community activists, and our volunteer program continues to provide unique and invaluable linkages between our broader community and our services. In 2014 Family Tree volunteers provided over 5,000 hours of service in our clinic including 500 direct patient education visits and dispensed over 10,000 safer sex kits at community events. Family Tree’s Community Health Education Program fills an urgent public health need by providing comprehensive sex education to underserved and at-risk youth and adults. For too long, ineffectual abstinence-only programs with no impact on sexual behavior have been the only offerings for young people seeking information and resources. By contrast, programs like Family Tree’s that support the full array of options (including both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives) have proven positive behavioral effects. In fact, the majority of participants in comprehensive sex education programs delay sexual activity, reduce their number of sexual partners, and increase condom or contraceptive use. Family Tree travels to correctional facilities, colleges, public schools, Alternative Learning Centers, chemical dependency treatment centers, shelters and housing programs across the metro region to ensure that everyone has the full array of tools they need to make healthy and informed decisions about their sexual health. We provide in-depth and evidence-based information on birth control options, sexually transmitted infections, puberty, healthy relationships, Parents Are Sex Educators (PASE) programs, and Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) classes. In 2014, Family Tree educators ran 781 health education classes, equipping more than 13,848 individuals and families with unbiased, shame-free sexuality and health information. Two Certified Community Health Workers, both fluent in American Sign Language (ASL), run our innovative Health Education Program for the Deaf, DeafBlind and Hard of Hearing (DDBHH) community, leading workshops on anatomy, pregnancy prevention, puberty, healthy relationships, self-esteem, sexually transmitted infections, and Parents Are Sexuality Educators (PASE) programs. This is the only program of its kind in the state. Approximately 10% of U.S. residents manage profound hearing loss. On average, DDBHH community members are at a greater likelihood of being low-income, uninsured, alienated from higher education, and at a greater risk for sexual abuse and lack of information around sexual health. Additionally, Deaf LGBT individuals are at a higher risk of in-community discrimination and more likely to conceal their sexual behavior, engage in unsafe activity, and lack access to accurate and up-to-date sexual health information. In 2014, Family Tree confronted these disparities by providing nearly 1,600 DDBHH community members with resources, information, and social support that might otherwise have been inaccessible to them. Since 1979, we have operated the Department of Health-funded Minnesota Family Planning and STD Hotline (1-800-78-FACTS, www.sexualhealthmn.org), a statewide service providing free and confidential information about STIs, birth control, and family planning. Through the hotline, we also maintain a family planning provider database and provide referrals to low-cost clinics in all 87 counties in Minnesota. In 2010, in response to the shifting needs of our community, and particularly of youth, Family Tree redesigned the Hotline website and added text and web chat services to what had previously been a call-in only Hotline. Hotline activity increased by 35% in the first year. In 2014, hotline health educators dispensed expert information and referrals in response to overall 1,689 calls, 601 web chats, and 685 texts. Since 2009, Family Tree Clinic has articulated a focus on providing culturally appropriate, compassionate, and progressive health care to the LGBTQ community through our LGBTQ Health Access Initiative. Working to address a long-standing disenfranchisement of the LGBTQ community and gender nonconforming individuals and to improve health outcomes, we have partnered with community-based organizations to tailor and improve our outreach, education, and clinic services. The specialized care we provide to LGBTQ individuals through all stages of life, including low-cost STI testing and free HIV testing for uninsured patients, is making strides to counteract the pervasive discrimination that sexual and gender minorities have traditionally experienced in medical settings. Since launching our initiative in 2009, the percentage of LGBTQ-identified patients served at Family Tree has increased from 9% to nearly 20%. This patient base is set to increase markedly in the coming year, as we continue to fulfill our promise to the transgender community by offering sliding-fee-scale hormone therapy for those transitioning—a move that is revolutionary within the Twin Cities metro region for its commitment to gender affirmation treatment and health care access for all.