As the sole Title X family planning services provider in Jefferson County, Alabama, the Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) requests a 15-month $1.5 million Funding to Address Dire Need for Family Planning Services Program grant to improve organizational capacity to meet demonstrated increased need for Title X family planning services among women of reproductive age, males, and adolescents in Jefferson County. Due to the passage of the nation’s most strenuous abortion law in 2019, the approval of a state constitutional amendment in 2018 designed to protect the sanctity of life, criminalization of pregnant women who use substances, and other local policies and regulations, Alabama has the distinction of enacting some of the nation’s most stringent laws and policies that serve to reduce access to comprehensive family planning services. JCDH seeks to address documented increased need for services by providing targeted and comprehensive family planning services including counseling, pregnancy testing, STI testing, contraception, birth control (oral and injectable), IUD implantation, immunizations, annual exams, and other appropriate services (excluding sterilizations for which referrals are provided). The project seeks to serve 2,000 additional eligible clients (over 2020 service levels) using a five-pronged approach that includes: 1) initiating telehealth services to improve access; 2) adding a new mobile health unit designed to serve 1,000 residents in underserved rural areas of the county and other areas of documented need; 3) establishing a new teen health clinic to serve 250 adolescents; 4) implementing a digital marketing campaign to increase community awareness of service and clinic sites; and 5) increasing outreach to serve 250 new male clients. Over the 15-month grant period, the project will serve females, males, and adolescents. Local partners include the Alabama Department of Public Health which funds JCDH as a Title X subrecipi
ent and provides service linkages via the state’s website. No subrecipients will be funded under the grant.
