#try this activity

In March, I began consulting with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Bureau of Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health around engaging community stakeholders on health equity and reproductive justice. I was initially intrigued because this was the first time I've heard of a city health department being interested in incorporating the reproductive justice framework into their work. Last week, the DOHMH held a community gathering of 65 local organizations on how to engage the community in this work, and I assisted in introducing the reproductive justice framework to those in the room who were not familiar with it. It was a great opportunity to assist the DOHMH in utilizing the reproductive justice framework in their work as they connect with local providers, community groups and activists, and I look forward to working with the DOHMH as they become more engaged with the New York City community.

During my presentation, I broke down the differences between the reproductive health, rights, and justice frameworks into two using Forward Together’s groundbreaking report A New Vision for Advancing Our Movement for Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, and Reproductive Justice (2005):

Reproductive Health: A service delivery model that focuses on addressing the reproductive health needs of women. The people affected are patients in need of services and/or education, and the key players are people who work as, or are allied with, medical professionals, community and public health educators, health researchers, and health service providers.

Reproductive Rights: A legal/advocacy based model that focuses on the protection of an individual’s right to access to reproductive health services. The people affected are individuals who are encouraged to actively participate in the political process, and the key players are people who work as, or are allied with, advocates, legal experts, policymakers, and elected officials.

Reproductive Justice: A community organizing model that focuses on intersectionality as a way to organize communities to change structural inequalities. The people affected are community members who are organized to lead against reproductive oppression and other injustices, and the key players are people who work as, or are allied with reproductive rights,  reproductive health, and social justice and other justice organizations.

To go further, I used a health topic to demonstrate how it could look under each of these frameworks. Let’s take a look at an example on minors consenting to HIV treatment in New York State:

Concern: While minors can consent to HIV testing without parental consent in NYS, they currently cannot consent to HIV treatment without parental consent

RH: Although NYS law does not explicitly allow minors to consent to medical treatment, some adolescent HIV providers allow minors to consent to their HIV medical care, based on the minor's maturity and individual circumstances. Also, HIV is typically viewed separately from reproductive health issues.

RR: Governor Cuomo recently endorsed a list of 30+ recommendations from leading HIV/AIDS providers, activists, and experts (called “The Blueprint”) on ending AIDS as an epidemic in NYS in the year 2020. Included in the recommendations is advocacy for minors to consent to treatment without parental involvement

RJ: Youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender are at higher risk of HIV infection due to lack of access to primary care that can address the needs of LGBTQ youth, possibly not being “out” to their family, higher rates of homelessness, lack of HIV education, substance use, etc.

I thought this could be a good exercise to share with you all as a way of discussing how various health-related topics can be viewed under each framework. This can aid in generating more discussion on how interconnected these frameworks are and how we can find ways to make more advancements for our clients, our rights, and our communities.

Here are some health-related topics and suggestions for how they fit under each framework to consider. There are many ways you can do this, so feel free to use these examples to create your own:

Abortion (options counseling, Roe v. Wade, abortion as a right for communities of color but not as a primary focus)

Birth Control (education on contraception options, health care plans covering contraception under the Affordable Care Act, higher promotion of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) among women and girls of color)

Comprehensive Sex Education (training for teachers and health educators, funding towards abstinence-only curriculum in schools, connecting sex education to spirituality/religion)

HIV (testing and treatment, confidentiality laws and disclosing to partners, employment discrimination)

Pregnancy and Parenting (access to prenatal care, paid maternity leave, shackling of pregnant incarcerated women during childbirth)

RAISE YOUR VOICE: What are some other health-related topics that are impacting your community, and how can you view them separately and collectively under the reproductive health, rights, and justice frameworks?

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Try This Activity: Use The Teach Back Method to Improve Your Workshop Facilitation Skills 

(Image credit)

There’s a lot to think about when planning a workshop, and along with making sure we're as engaging as possible, we get caught up in how we’re delivering our message, that we don’t realize how it’s being received.

Outside of evaluating your workshop, there’s a great tool that’s been used by teachers, healthcare professionals, and social workers alike. It’s called the Teach Back method, and you’re going to start incorporating this into your workshops.

The Teach Back method (also known as the “show me method”, or “closing the loop” is a practice where the facilitator asks the workshop participants to explain a concept or skill based on the workshop topic, essentially taking on the role of facilitator. The Teach Back allows you to gauge your participants’ understanding of a topic or concept. The Teach Back also determines how effective you are at teaching or demonstrating a concept or skill within of your workshop. Merely standing in front of your participants and reciting information, even if you’re engaging them, doesn’t lead to a high increase of behavior change in the long run.

If your workshop participants are able to Teach Back, it means they most likely understand the material, especially since they’re tasked with teaching to their peers.

Along with retaining information, some of the benefits of the Teach Back method include:

Participants see themselves as experts, rather than relying solely on the expertise of the facilitator

Participants will most likely employ the behavior in real world situations

Participants are able to retain information when it’s recited in their own words 

As the facilitator, you also benefit from the Teach Back method:

There's less focus on you being the expert, and more focus on you being a resource

You can identify and correct any misunderstandings. If you observe that you have a few participants that also have the same misunderstanding, this gives you the opportunity to re-teach the concept

You can tie together your workshop topic and apply key concepts and skills to real world situations that are familiar to your participants

You can ask your participants to repeat what you’ve said in their own words

The Teach Back method is often used in healthcare settings as a way for healthcare professionals to confirm that their patients understood what instructions to take to promote health and wellness. A common example is when a doctor is instructing a patient on how to take a particular medication. Instead of expecting an “I understand” answer, the doctor can ask, “So, tell me what you’re going to do with this medication when you wake up tomorrow?” to have the patient repeat back, in her or his own words, how to properly take the medication and to clarify any misunderstandings. 

Here’s how to use the Teach Back method for your next workshop: