County’s teen clinic garners #036;80,000 grant
Published 12:00 am Monday, December 13, 1999
The Mower County Community Health Services is slated to receive an $80,000 grant for the county’s Open Door Clinic for teen-agers.
Monday, December 13, 1999
The Mower County Community Health Services is slated to receive an $80,000 grant for the county’s Open Door Clinic for teen-agers.
It is one of 61 projects in Minnesota that will receive grants to provide prepregnancy family planning services to adolescents and low-income women and families in Minnesota.
The grants are being awarded through the Family Planning Special Projects Grants Program, administered by the Minnesota department of Health.
"These grants are a vital part of our public health goal to create healthy families and communities," Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm said in a news release.
The Minnesota Legislature created the program in 1978 to enable local organizations to provide family planning services to eligible people in their communities.
Services include public information, outreach counseling, contraceptive method services, referral and follow-up Me Overall goal of the program is to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in the state.
Because of limited resources and increased requests for funding, MDH was required to be more restrictive in awarding grants for the 2000-2001 grant period.
During the 1998-1999 grant period, $10.6 million was made available to 62 local projects across the state.
For 2000-2001, the department received requests for $11.8 million, while it had only $10.06 million available.
"A number of factors have combined to restrict the grants we are able to award for the next two years," Malcolm said.
"There is a reduction in available funds and an increase in the costs of providing the services At the same time, legislative action eliminated the $75,000 funding limit per organization and the ‘hold harmless’ clause, which assured priority funding for current grant recipients, was not continued," he said.
"The need simply exceeds the supply of money," he concluded.
While some of the 61 projects being funded are new or will receive larger grants than in previous years, others will receive smaller grants.
Malcolm emphasized that MDH will be working to assure that access to confidential, low-cost family planning services will be available throughout Minnesota.
Austin does not have such a service since the Planned Parenthood Association offices closed.
"We believe that family planning services help individuals – and the entire state – in many ways, and we are committed to making these services available to those most in need," Malcolm said.
"By reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, we can increase the likelihood that families will achieve self-sufficiency and reduce their need for other government assistance."
"This is no time to decrease our commitment to family planning," Malcolm said. "While we regret that there is not enough money right now to meet the requests of all interested organizations, we are committed to working together with various groups to develop long-term, effective solutions."