It takes a community: CBOs and family planning providers collaborate to increase access to reproductive health services for low-income populations

Low-income populations often face barriers in accessing family planning services. Encouraging partnerships between family planning providers and community-based organizations (CBOs) may be a successful strategy for increasing access as CBOs are, as the name implies, centered within the community and attuned to the particular issues and needs of that community. CBOs have established track records of addressing the needs of low-income residents, and often serve as a critical gateway between their clients and needed health and social services. Executive directors of non-medical provider CBOs (N=209) in California were surveyed to assess whether CBOs are knowledgeable of and collaborating with family planning providers. The CBOs surveyed were well-positioned to collaborate with family planning providers. The vast majority of respondents (83%) perceived their clients to be in need of free or low-cost family planning services. Nearly all (98%) reported providing referrals to clients for outside services; the most common type of referral made was to health services (67%). Nearly all CBOs (93%) were currently involved in coalitions and partnerships with organizations in their community, including those that offer clinical health care services (70%). The vast majority of respondents that collaborated with family planning providers felt that their collaboration enabled them to better meet the needs of their clients (89%) and that collaboration resulted in improved coordination of services between the two organizations (61%). Collaborating with CBOs through community coalitions and partnerships is likely to be an effective approach to increasing access for populations in need of low-cost family planning services.