Voluntary stables; Collaborating to deliver family planning services to vulnerable women

Arizona State University's Breaking the Cycle Community Health Care (BTC) has provided health care to vulnerable populations in churches, schools, and homeless shelters since 1991. This Academic Nursing Center also serves as a clinical site for undergraduate nursing and graduate nurse practitioner students. In 2001 BTC initiated family planning services, as a federal Title X delegate agency, in collaboration with Grace Lutheran Church of Phoenix. BTC is the only federally funded family planning clinic housed in a church in the United States. This collaboration is a model of action based on shared values, putting into practice the conviction that caring for the health of others expresses responsibility for a just society. We provide family planning services and related health care to approximately 1,600 individuals annually. More than 90% of our clients are Hispanic, primarily monolingual, live below federal poverty guidelines, and do not qualify for Medicaid. The services are delivered using the nursing model; providing care for the whole person, attending to the physiological, psychological, socio-cultural, developmental, and spiritual aspects of health. Family planning services improve health for women and birth outcomes, alleviate poverty, and conserve scarce resources. The nursing model, coupled with service to the vulnerable, is consistent with two central areas of Grace's ministry: its concern for the whole person and the whole community, especially for those who often slip through the cracks of the system. Family planning services are best delivered in the context of community, where mission and ministry intersect to build healthier communities.