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SAVE THE DATE!
SEPTEMBER 21
Birth Control Update
Dallas
SEPTEMBER 27
Cocktails for a Cause
Dallas
OCTOBER 25
Clinic Tour
Dallas
NOVEMBER 14
Clinic Tour
Fort Worth
JANUARY 25
Issues and Opportunities, Roles and Responsibilities: Promoting a Positive Body Image in Adolescents
Fort Worth
JANUARY 30
Annual Luncheon
Fort Worth
FEBRUARY 22
Annual Awards Luncheon
Dallas
FEBRUARY 29
Dialoguing with Youth About Sexual Issues
Dallas
"I hosted a house party with great support from the PPNT team. It still seems that many women in the community connect Planned Parenthood only with facilitating abortions and pro-choice related legislation. The more we can support community outreach the more we will communicate to women the significant depth of health related services and family planning education provided by PPNT to all women of North Texas."
—Kendall Lake
Arlington, Texas
“The provision of quality health care to low-come individuals used to revolve around just the issue of funding. Now, in order to provide services that no one else will, we have to battle the personal and partisan agendas of those who hold office.”
—James T. Roderick
President/CEO
“During the past five years, I have seen the CID Project influence all aspects of Planned Parenthood - from education to the provision of services. Identifying supporters in our constituency is truly the future of the organization.”
—Naomi Aberly
PPNT Board Chair |
SUPPORTERS HELP US ACHIEVE
OUR MISSION IN THE LEGISLATURE
The 80th Texas legislative session concluded at the end of May and, for the first time in almost a decade, no new anti-choice initiatives passed. While we were not successful in passing any pro-choice legislation this session, we were successful in adding new language to the state budget that should help more women access family planning services. Our efforts to educate legislators about the need for family planning among Texas women could not have been accomplished without our vast network of supporters. We gained many of these supporters through the Constituent Identification (CID) Project.
Being able to easily and effectively communicate with our constituency is vital to our advocacy campaigns. In January, we hosted Happy Hours in Arlington, Dallas, Flower Mound, Fort Worth, and Plano to bring supporters together and outline our agenda for the session. In February, we took 100 supporters to Austin for Lobby Day, meeting with 63 North Texas legislators about the importance of accessible reproductive health care for all Texans. PPNT kept supporters informed about happenings at the capitol via e-mail throughout the session and generated more than 4,200 messages directly to North Texas legislators, urging them to promote responsible policies that help keep Texas women and their families healthy. PPNT supporters without e-mail received information about the session in the Legislative Update, our quarterly mail piece on legislative issues. Additionally, PPNT staff and volunteers met with North Texas legislators and their staff at several in-district meetings.
Anti-choice bills—including a “trigger ban”—died before they came to the floor for a vote. Government funding for family planning fared better this session. While we were not able to remove a rider (amendment) that hijacks $20 million away from proven providers of preventive health care services and gives it to Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), we were able to add language allowing the health department to implement the provision only if it does not aversely affect the number of women who receive family planning services. Because FQHCs don't have the capacity to see such a large number of family planning patients, 33,000 fewer women were provided with family planning services in 2006 as compared to 2005. We hope that with this new language those women will receive care.
Unfortunately, another rider, the “alternatives to abortion” program, is still included in the state's budget. This program usurps $5 million of funding from family planning providers and gives it to agencies that provide no medical services and do nothing to help prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place! After almost two years of the program, these agencies have only served 1,400 clients—with $5 million of taxpayer money. This is both a waste of taxpayer dollars and harmful to Texas women and their families. Legislators will continue to hear from us about this issue.
As we identify more supporters and increase the advocates in the Action Network, we will continue to move forward with our agenda in preparation for the 2009 session. Please join the Action Network today.
THE CID PROJECT
Even before Margaret Sanger began her efforts to bring family planning information to women in New York, there were those who opposed discussion of birth control and sexual health issues. Therefore, advocacy for reproductive rights has been a partner in the provision of reproductive health care services. Planned Parenthood of North Texas (PPNT) has always considered advocacy a vital part of its mission.
In 2001, PPNT launched its Constituent Identification Project (CID), a demanding yet exciting journey to change how the organization identifies, educates, communicates with, and mobilizes those in the community who believe in PPNT's policy platform. The agency knew the resulting network of grassroots supporters would be instrumental in the re-emergence of a social climate in Texas that values children, supports reproductive health care and enhances the lives of women and their families.
To accomplish the initial strategic commitment to build a grassroots base of 150,000 individuals who support family planning, reproductive health care services and choice, PPNT conducted non-partisan telephone surveys to find supportive constituents in select North Texas counties.
Once individuals were identified, PPNT used mailings, its newly designed website, and special events to inform them about the agency's mission and public policy issues and to extend an opportunity to join the Action Network in order to be kept up-to-date on the issues. Surprisingly, many people who believe in the work of PPNT are not aware of the challenges faced by the organization. An overarching goal of the CID Project was, and remains, to better communicate these challenges so that constituents will speak out about their support for family planning and reproductive freedoms and vote to protect them!
By the end of 2006, PPNT had identified 150,000 individuals from throughout North Texas who support family planning, reproductive health care services and choice. While the majority of those identified to date live in the urban counties (Collin, Dallas, Denton, and Tarrant), PPNT has also identified individuals in 23 surrounding and non-urban counties with a significant population base. The Action Network has also grown from approximately 5,000 people to more than 25,000 individuals who support PPNT's mission—an astounding accomplishment given that no previous endeavor of a similar nature had ever been undertaken by the reproductive health care community anywhere in Texas.
In eight patch-through phone projects between 2001-2006, constituents have placed 3,168 calls to the offices of 40 legislators, both state and federal. Topics of concern have included the nomination of federal judicial candidates and funding for family planning services. The agency had never engaged in this type of advocacy before the CID Project.
We are a year into the second phase of the project. By 2011, PPNT will identify an additional 100,000 constituents, double the internal database of Action Network members from 25,000 to 50,000 supporters and strengthen the Public Affairs Department by increasing the professional staff of community organizers.
Through these multiple approaches and your continued support, PPNT will cultivate a dynamic network of individuals united in shared values. This network of supporters will raise its voice in support of PPNT's mission and vision, thus creating a better Texas for all.
For more information on this program, please e-mail us at info.public@ppnt.org.
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
—By Lisa Kraus
After serving on the Planned Parenthood of North Texas (PPNT) Board of Directors for two years, I now see from a much closer vantage point just how essential this organization is to our community. At the heart of it, my husband Peter and I are drawn to PPNT's unwavering commitment to providing health care and education, and to preserving basic rights. Like so many, Peter and I believe that providing affordable reproductive health care is an important part of the solution to so many of our community's social problems.
Because of our strong commitment to PPNT and our desire that it remain fully intact, we support the Constituent Identification Project (CID). This is a sophisticated and effective way to improve our community through the democratic process. We feel that the PPNT Constituent Identification Project is democracy in action. Identifying and maintaining contact with supporters in the region is vital to Planned Parenthood's future. Educating and motivating advocates to take action is what can truly impact a legislative agenda. Individual rights, especially reproductive rights, are constantly threatened and undermined today. There is a lot at stake right now and PPNT works every day to ensure that access to reproductive health care does not diminish. As parents, we want to ensure that future generations have access to reproductive health care and that civil liberties are strengthened, not worsened. By identifying and mobilizing supporters PPNT is in a position to activate constituents to quickly take action when needed.
At this year's PPNT Annual Awards Luncheon, keynote speaker David Gergen said, "I think that you have nothing to fear, particularly from a debate, as long as you make your voices heard. What you have to fear is if you go on the sidelines...If you go on the sidelines, you lose." [Click here to get information on the 2008 Annual Awards Luncheon.]
Through the CID Project, people who care about these important issues are encouraged to participate in the process, and stay off the sidelines. We, as North Texans, are able to make our collective voices heard, loud and clear.
GUARANTEEING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
The Constituent Identification Project began with three important gifts, one a matching grant from a family foundation and the other two were bequests. Both women, Elizabeth Webb and Clara Teller, were longtime supporters of Planned Parenthood's mission. Their gifts helped successfully launch the Constituent Identification Project when few understood or knew about its impact on future health policies.
The need for access to family planning is truly understood by those who lived without choice prior to Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade. Your support of PPNT is critical to the successful future of our efforts and activities. Making a Planned Gift guarantees reproductive freedom for future generations. A Planned Gift to PPNT is a legacy that honors what matters to you most—your loved ones, your principles and your values.
The struggle over reproductive rights has gone on long before many of us were alive; unfortunately, it will continue after many of us are gone. A bequest is a wonderful way to ensure that access to family planning is maintained long after we are gone.
For more information on Planned Giving, please email us at info.dev@ppnt.org.
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