- Good evening. This is Susan with the Monroe County Women's Commission. It is Thursday, August 20th.
- It is 5-34, and we'll go ahead and get started. The commission shall serve in an advisory role to assist
- residents, businesses, and the government of Monroe County in addressing issues of gender equity. The
- mission is to advance the status of women and marginalized genders in all areas of county life.
- first order of business is to send out. Are you sent out the minutes? Did we have any? Commission or
- maybe I fixed that so and. I still owe us may though. Or the one that we got is just for June, July.
- July. Do we have a motion to pass July's minutes?
- I will move to approve July minutes. I second. Five minutes. Commissioner updates will start with Jennifer.
- Do you have any general updates we won't cover later? No, I don't think so. I do not. Commissioner Hardesty.
- I have a freedom school steering committee update, which is just something that I am working on in the
- community. So we have a plan now to begin engaging with the community via some community events this
- fall. And we have a mission, and it's to educate students about black history and culture, deepening
- their understanding of the past, its impact on the present, and their role in shaping a better future.
- So we're very excited about this. So we're beginning things off.
- kicking things off with a meeting for any interested parents and their kids to learn about what this
- program is going to be and the activities that we have planned for this fall. And that meeting is happening
- at the Monroe County Public Library downtown branch on Sunday, September 13th from three to four p.m.
- in combo room meeting room one B slash C. So I do have a
- community. Um our habitat for humanity. We build on September 26th. If anybody would like to donate
- or join, you can go to habitat for humanity. Join my team. My name is Jennifer Bell. Thanks. Julie.
- Did you have anything else now? Um my only updates. Update is I did talk to Commissioner Yarrow earlier this
- I did have a proxy for them, but I don't know what happened to them. So I did want to announce that
- I know Saturday's pride. I guess we should say that. But additionally, because everybody I think knows
- that I am on the Monroe County Fire Protection District Board as well, and we have
- of our community cookout, which they scheduled for this Saturday, August 22nd at 2026 from 11 to three.
- It is out at Monroe Fire Station 21, which is at 9094 South Strain Ridge Road. It's open everybody and
- they usually are have a lot of fun and they are doing the food paid the donation collection for Smithville
- Food Pantry and Grace Center Food Pantry.
- usually are a lot of fun, especially very family oriented and. Great, highly recommend ever. If you
- ever have a chance to go meet those people there, the firefighters and staff and board were all amazing.
- We should make a little bit more about Bloomington Pride Fest because it's happening all afternoon and
- into the evening on Saturday. I don't know what I was like. I don't even know what time it starts. What
- time does it start? It's like one ish to you. Yeah, two to what? Just go to Kirkwood. Yeah, that close
- in the street, right? And I think the weather is going to be nice. Hopefully it's going to be great.
- will come up in old business. Let's, I know we didn't introduce ourselves when we started. Why don't
- you just, so this is. Yes, just introduce yourselves and then we'll introduce ourselves. Okay, my name
- is Suki. I'm a third year medical student here at the IU School of Medicine Bloomington campus.
- My name is Sage. I'm a second year medical student here at the IU Bloomington Medical School campus.
- My name is Julie Hardesty. I'm a member of the Women's Commission, but I'm also a librarian at Indiana
- University. My name is Jennifer Belton, Women's Commission. I work at the VA, the Veterans Administration
- here in Bloomington. Molly with the Women's Commission. I work in
- know who I am. I'm Susan slash Gus. Well, I'm the chair and most of us have been on the commission for
- many, many years, it feels like. And a lot of time we have in the past, we, like I asked you, I mean,
- this has been like a year in the making. I feel like, you know, had people come and present. And like
- I've said, it's like, it always seems unimpressive because no one ever comes or watches. But if like,
- We do get like a lot of people view us on because they're all recorded on cats and they go up online.
- So it's always nice, you know, to one of our big things is to try to amplify voices of programs that
- are going on in the community just so to get the more of the word out. And obviously the clinic fits
- the bill perfectly and it is such a great
- program and project that, that's why I was hoping you guys could come share with us and that actually
- I'm going to have an ask as well that I realized. So you guys, so they're going to, TSD, sorry. So can
- you promote Sage Sweeney? Cause she's going to, they're going to present, do a presentation for us.
- Thank you. All right. Ready? I'm ready. Awesome. We're ready. So I already introduced myself.
- My name is Sage. I am second year medical student and one of the medical student chairs for IUSM's Gender
- Diverse and Queer Clinic. And Suki is our third year chair. So we're going to share a little bit about
- our clinic today.
- So first, some general information about what the Gender Diverse and Queer Clinic is, or the GDQC. So
- we are a IU Health student-run clinic that provides free health care services to those that are uninsured
- or underinsured, both in Bloomington and in Indiana at large. We focus on safe and affirming primary
- care for LGBTQ patients. Some of our services include preventative care and health screenings.
- labs including cervical cancer screening blood panels urine panels mental and sexual health care resources
- medication management gender affirming care and we'll get into some of our other offerings as well a
- little bit later. But first I want to talk about
- So some health and equity challenges facing our LGBTQ population nationwide. So LGBTQ individuals face
- a lot of barriers to care. They're two times as likely to rely on Medicaid as primary insurance compared
- to non-LGBTQ adults and more likely to cite cost as a reason for delaying healthcare. They
- face discrimination or fear of discrimination, which can discourage individuals from pursuing healthcare.
- And we have a historic last year report
- of LGBTQ competent health care providers in our country. So a little bit on health care disparities.
- In terms of physical health, LGBTQ adults face greater cardiovascular disease risk.
- incidence of eating disorders and disorder eating habits and higher risk of sleep health issues, to
- name a few. In addition to sexual health disparities with homosexual men, men who have sex with men,
- being at increased risk for certain STIs. Interestingly, receptive anal partners are at greater risk
- than contracting HIV in comparison to receptive vaginal partners, and this is due to thinner lining
- of the anal canal. So just anatomically how we're built can put us at higher risk for certain diseases.
- And then in terms of mental health disparities, LGBTQ individuals are more likely to experience mental
- health conditions, anxiety, depression, suicide, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse compared to
- cisgender heterosexual peers. 41% of LGBTQ youth report seriously considering suicide in comparison
- to 13% of their cishet peers.
- And a lot of these health disparities are often attributed to the minority stress model. So LGBTQ individuals
- experience unique stressors related to discrimination and victimization, such as bullying and harassment
- that can compound some of these disparities over time. So in terms of Bloomington in specific, there
- were a few founding research publications put out that demonstrated a lack
- acute competent care in southern Indiana in particular. So less than half of transgender and gender
- non-binary survey respondents reported having a LGBTQ welcoming healthcare provider.
- Those who had an LGBTQ welcoming health care provider and a competent provider were more likely to report
- their health as excellent or good and to report quality of health as excellent or very good compared
- to individuals without an LGBTQ welcoming provider. Some common themes arose in some of these surveys
- regarding health care experiences, including discrimination and validation and distrust.
- And then this is a clip of the paper that I'm describing, which was published by IU medical students
- regarding the research in this area. So the survey included 85 participants and was created by one of
- the founding members of the GDQC. Her name is Keely Newsome. She's a physician now. And this survey
- demonstrated the need for gender inclusive LGBTQ competent care in order to bridge the health care disparity
- gaps that we're seeing in southern and central Indiana. So Suki is going to share some more.
- So as Sage said, one of our founding clinic members conducted a survey on not only the rate or really
- the self-described health of LGBTQ folks in southern Indiana, but they also conducted a study on IU
- medical students perceived
- competency in this area. So they did a study on the frequency of IU medical students asking about their
- partners, about their patients, sexual orientation and gender identity during the course of a patient
- interview or a patient interaction. They found that the number of students asking about sexual orientation
- and gender identity significantly decreased with every year of training.
- Reasons that these students cited included believing that this is irrelevant to the encounter, limiting
- inquiries to patients with sexual health complaints only, and negative influence from their attendings.
- However, it's been pretty demonstrated that discussing the sexual orientation and gender identity of
- patients can allow for more patient-centered care, even in contexts where it may not seem necessarily
- relevant. This can improve
- patient physician trust and sexual and gender minority health as a whole. Okay yeah so.
- That was, those were studies that were conducted by medical students. We sort of cite those as our founding
- studies and kind of like as a reason for existing. There's other studies that exist that show that the
- self-assessed LGBTQ care competency of healthcare professionals tend to, they tend to rate themselves
- lower in this field rather than in fields, or rather than in discussing cisgender patient concerns.
- The knowledge gap permeates all facets of healthcare, so not only is it about sexual health as we've
- discussed, but the trust relationship that can come along with having these discussions with your provider
- can really improve healthcare and improve the patient relationship in all facets of healthcare and all
- aspects of healthcare.
- aspects of the patient relationship. So the point of the GDQC is not only to provide gender affirming
- care, but it is to cultivate skills in future physicians and to cultivate affirming skills as well as
- patient relationship skills and communication skills in our students.
- research has consistently shown that additional education about sexual orientation and gender identity
- is needed at all levels of medical training, not just in the medical school curriculum, but beyond.
- And our findings show that the hidden curriculum of, well, hidden curriculum, quote unquote, about health
- care for minority populations can be really powerful and can really improve students' understanding
- of their patients and really improve that patient-physician relationship. We hope to model acceptance
- of and respect for LGBTQ patients.
- through our clinic, and we believe this could go a long way for countering bias and distrust in health
- care and ultimately help address health care disparities in the LGBTQ community in Indiana.
- A little bit of basic info about our clinic. We meet once a month, second Sunday of every month, at
- the IU Health Clinic on South Roger Street. So when we say underinsured, we mean folks whose insurance
- is not accepted by IU Health because we are related to IU Health. We cannot accept patients who have
- insurance that would be accepted by IU Health. We tend to make exceptions for urgent cases or for folks
- that have been consistently seeing us but recently obtained insurance but still have an appointment
- on the books.
- These are kind of in the weeds, but we really do try to be flexible.
- For those who are insured and get in contact with us, we have three physicians that we can sort of vouch
- for in their gender-affirming care competency. So Dr. Cassandra Dishman-Kessler is the primary physician
- that works with us. She was the physician that helped us found the clinic, and we work out of her clinic,
- and we really could not do this without her. But her, Dr. Rebecca Cohen and Dr. Laura Knudsen are three
- physicians that work with us in the clinic, and they're also physicians that we refer patients to if
- they are insured because
- We know that we can count on them to provide Compton LGBTQ care. In the clinic, medical students do
- the majority of the work. The patient comes in, we take the vitals, we discuss, you know, whatever might
- be bringing them in, and then we present the issues to the staffing physician, and then the student
- and physician will go back in together. So every patient will see a physician, of course, but it is
- kind of the medical students that do the kind of the upfront patient interaction first.
- So we do everything a primary kidney can do, prescriptions, screenings, long-term medication management.
- A new development for us that has been really huge and exciting is that we now can do on-site lab draws.
- So we can do blood draws. We can do urine samples. We can do swabs for STI screens. So we can check
- on hormone therapy levels, general health maintenance, like cholesterol, you know, lipids.
- STI testing and pap smears. So we could do a lot and it is really, really exciting that we can offer
- a more whole and kind of like holistic healthcare model. Then for things that we can't do, referrals
- to specialists, we have connections to gender affirming care in Indianapolis for surgery and such that
- we can't provide here. We are trying to build our list of mental health counselors that we also have,
- that we also know are LGBTQ affirming and safe to send our patients to. And then we also provide
- on safe sex practices, trans rights, and community resources. We give out a lot of stuff, a lot of safe
- sex supplies, naloxone, masks, things like this.
- So we have really tried to become integrated into our community. It's really important to us that we
- are like integrated in Bloomington and that we know what already exists here so that we're not providing
- something that's redundant and that we can point people towards resources that we can provide. So we
- have met with and spoken to all of these
- Different organizations here and we really feel that it's important to educate our patients on what
- there is out there. So HIV testing and prep. There's positive link path for you provides birth control
- all over Indiana.
- We have connections with the Hoosier Health Food Bank, Indiana Legal Services, as well as the Maurer
- Law School, County Health Department. We also partner with the Indiana Rural Health Association, and
- they are able to assist people with insurance navigation. We've been in contact with the Mobility Aided
- Lending Library. Overall, we just want to show that we
- really believe in a holistic health care model where health is not just about your physical health,
- but also your food security, housing security, mental health, all of these things that kind of come
- together that are necessary for someone to live through health and wellness. So we really tried to make
- sure that we were aware of the community resources that we have and that we are giving out these, that
- we're giving out information so that people can utilize everything that's available to them.
- In terms of funding, we get a majority of our funding through the IU Foundation Women's Philanthropy
- and Queer Philanthropy Circle. We actually just got another grant about a month ago for about $14,000
- from them, which we are really, really excited about and grateful for because it allows us to expand
- our lab practices and expand the amount of supplies that we can stock and give out. We also started
- focusing on raising community donations in the last
- year or so, year and a half, I think in 2020.
- I would say the second half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, we raised about $5,000, which was really
- huge for us. This is primarily from local donors. We have a drag show fundraiser at the back door at
- the end of every sort of school semester. So every May and December, we've had two so far, and we're
- going on our third, which is really huge for us. Shout out Keller for organizing. So this is a really
- fun way to, again, engage with the community, raise some money, and spread some awareness about our
- So we're really excited about the way that things are going. We're really expanding our services, and
- we're expanding our funding sources as well. So future goals, something that we're currently working
- on is partnering with the IU pharmacies to get discounted prescription costs and cover medication costs
- for our patients. So we can work out a deal with these pharmacies and pay a discounted cost.
- on behalf of our patients if they're not able to afford their medications. Some kind of long-term goals
- as well is providing its print transportation assistance to patients. We've actually had patients come
- from South Bend to come to our clinic and several patients coming from South Bend. And so we're trying
- to figure out how to fund gas cards or Uber vouchers for people so that they can make it so that that's
- not a barrier for them.
- Of course, we're always looking to increase funding. We're hoping to increase clinic days. Our capacity
- is not huge. You know, we're able to see about five or six new patients a month and five or six follow-up
- patients a month. And so for the last few months, we've been fully booked and we're pretty much booked
- for September and pretty close to being booked for October.
- So we're trying to increase our capacity however we can because we know that with the cuts to Medicaid
- that are happening that we may we are seeing an increase in demand and we're seeing an increase in patient
- increase. So we really want to be a consistent source of quality health care.
- a little plug for our drag sale fundraiser on December 11th at the back door. It's sponsored by Stonewall
- Sports in Indianapolis, as well as some local business sponsors that we have every year. So we do a
- raffle. We charge, I think, $10 for admission. And it's really huge for our community engagement. It's
- a really fun event. We have a ton of fun, of course, every time. So spread the word.
- Yeah. Oh, they're so good. Oh, they're so good. Yeah. So we get like a bunch of local drag queens to
- come in and do shows. And then we also host our own little raffle. We crocheted little boobs and penises.
- And they give them out as like little key chains. And those were really fun. But we also have family
- friendly. Well, it's not true. It's at a bar. So it's not it's not family friendly. I won't say that.
- it's a really fun event and we really like to engage their community and yeah we're just hoping to keep
- expanding and one more note that I want to say before we end is that even though that we are focused
- on LGBTQ health care because that is a huge disparity in our country right now we see anybody we see
- any patient
- any problem as long as they meet our insurance requirements. We're absolutely very happy to provide
- primary care to any Cishet patient in our community or in Indiana because we just believe that primary
- health care is a right for everyone and everyone and anyone. So you certainly don't have to be LGBTQ
- to come and we'd be very happy to help you out no matter what. So yeah. I would say that
- 75% of our patient population is LGBTQ, but there is a solid quarter of people that are just seeking
- primary care and come into clinic. You are not a part of the community. Yeah, we're very happy to run
- lipid panels or check your cholesterol or your blood pressure or help you with your diabetes medication
- or whatever it may be. So yeah, we just want to emphasize that point as well. I think that's pretty
- much all we've got. Thank you. Yeah, please, any questions? Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
- You probably know the answers already. And I say that because Jennifer and I met while working at Planned
- Parenthood many years ago. But I'm trying, I mean, like, so what, and I was trying to figure out the
- difference between, you know, the services the clinic offers versus, you know, Planned Parenthood. But
- you're like saying it's primary care, so it's more than just services that Planned Parenthood or even
- the health department
- Yeah, right and then what about I don't know what health nut does anymore. So what is But they do it
- all they have psych services dental. They do it all they have a pharmacy there also Yeah, we sent a
- few patients We've given patients health nuts information because we don't have an OBGYN GYN on site
- and things like that So health that's able to provide more specialty services than we are for sure.
- Would you say scale also? Would you say that are they LGBTQ plus friend like?
- I would assume, but I mean, I don't actually I don't want to assume, but I would say so. Yeah, we've
- talked to them and they are. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. We provide similar services,
- definitely. And you know, we met with them in the kind of beginning to kind of discuss how we could
- kind of complement each other's services. I would say that we provide maybe more specialized service,
- but we absolutely, you know, endorse their clinic as well. And we just, you know, hope that we can kind
- of work together to cover the population.
- Do people, is it a good response to Sunday services? Because in a way, I'd be like, how many people
- are open on a Sunday? Does it work for you or against you? Because I don't know. I'm just curious.
- I mean, I would say that most of the time Sunday can be convenient for people because they don't work.
- But on the other hand, we have a significant amount of patients who do work on Sundays. They do work
- weekends. So it's not ideal, of course, to be open just one day a month. And so we're hoping to expand
- that because it can be inconvenient. But because we're only open one day a month and because now we're
- booked out, if someone does need a more urgent visit or something like that, Health Net may be a better
- option in terms of just accessing services quicker.
- But yeah, we're hoping to be a little bit more flexible in the future. So how long, I may miss this,
- how long has the clinic existed? When did it start? October of 24. So we are on our second year now,
- operational. Is that in, when you're,
- When you're looking at other places to connect up with is that like a constant like what what services
- are are showing up in the community and and that's a constant conversation that's kind of. Yeah we around
- yeah so we have a lot of help from our fellow medical students so we have a few committees set up so
- that it's not just.
- Suki and our and our co-chairs are running everything so we have a partnership committee and they're
- really the ones in charge of Making those connections and maintaining them so that we like have a yeah
- I'm just, are you all still having to go out and look for things, or are other services coming to you
- and being like, hey, we're here to? They're starting to come to us, which is really great. That's awesome.
- Yeah, we recently, several months ago, we had SCAP come to a clinic and just leave some resources and
- business cards and discuss what they offer, what we offer. So it's been great to get a little bit more
- established in the community over time and have people kind of know about us sometimes before we know
- about them, which is amazing.
- that we're using. But yeah, our Partners Committee, as Sage said, is dedicated to building community
- partnerships. One thing that's really cool, too, one of my favorite recent examples, Stone Belt contacted
- us and was interested in figuring out how can we help each other. And in addition to talking about what
- services we could provide for each other's populations, we have educational talks that we do for medical students.
- Researchers clinicians professionals in the field come chat with medical students about topics that
- might be underrepresented in our curriculum. So through that connection we made with stone belt. We
- actually had one of their sexuality educators come talk with us about
- the topic of sexuality and intellectual and developmental disabilities and how to open those conversations
- up with patients that might be interested in talking about sex but haven't been presented with that
- opportunity before. And that was just one of my personal favorite connections that we've made so far
- because that's not a conversation at all that we're having in school. So it was really cool. You guys
- have a navigator on site if people want to sign up for insurance?
- who are not currently insured? So we have them, we on our like sort of intake form, we have them indicate
- whether or not they would like to be connected with the Indiana Rural Health Network. And then we send
- our patient's phone number to the Indiana Rural Health Network and they take over from there and reach
- out. So AHEC is the one who's setting them up for insurance, correct? Yeah, yeah.
- What about the med student participation? Is it picking up or is it kind of like like you have a wait
- list for appointments? Is there a wait list for students interested in?
- serving and being there. Med students are busy so sometimes it is a little bit it's a little bit pulling
- teeth to get people not know like people are pretty enthusiastic and every med student class that comes
- in we have more and more people say that like the clinic it was a big reason that they chose Bloomington
- because yes it's really a lot most recent year and it was really cool yeah we're having like the Inc
- we're doing first years right now. They people have to apply to be part of our clinic to be part of
- the committees and stuff. And a few of them have indicated that this is a big reason why they choose
- Bloomington, which just makes us really, really happy. This design, you know this. Yes, yes, yes. Our
- Dean Dean Hitler is pretty supportive of the clinic and I think that you know having the clinic here
- is a big boon for Bloomington. It gives students of really big really in.
- like important exposure to patients and really really useful clinical experience. Not only the fact
- that it's. Underrepresented like portion of health care but it's just you know an experience it's it's
- a chance to interact with patients so.
- Yeah, I think we have, we staff our clinics pretty well. I would say we have a significant amount of
- medical students from all four classes that are coming to help out. And yeah, as we expand, we need
- more and more of them. So getting fully staffed can be a little difficult sometimes, but we have a bunch
- of students that are interested and dedicated and really good at helping out. One thing that was really
- cool, our last clinic, we had, I think there were 12 students and we had
- 11 patients on the books. So for every patient, there was at least one medical student in attendance
- at clinic, which I thought was really cool.
- And you said this is giving med students experience. Is it counting towards getting the degree? I'm
- not quite sure how the medical degree works. Not exactly. There's not a requirement that they're fulfilling.
- But as an extracurricular activity, as a volunteer activity, we do count our volunteer hours. So this
- counts towards that. And it's definitely an experience that is significant to a lot of people to talk
- about later when they're applying to residency and stuff. So we do definitely think there's a material
- benefit to students.
- One other thing that I'll just bring up briefly is that we're hoping to start some academic research
- with our patient population. So getting, you know, our names on some papers is always a big boon for
- medical students as well, having some academic work. And then, of course, it's really beneficial to
- the clinic to understand who is our patient demographic,
- Why do they come to our clinic? What barriers exist to them for health care? What reasons do they cite
- as either barriers to health care or barriers to other things in their lives, such as issues with food
- and housing insecurity? So getting to know the patient population a little bit better is also a really
- big goal of ours, because it helps inform us how we can support them. One more.
- I can ask about. I'm wondering about for you because you were talking about patients needing transportation
- help and you're looking around trying to figure out ways to get that help for them. Is there is there
- kind of like a grant writing committee that's part of this that's looking at trying to get grant funding
- for things like that? We have our finance committee and they're in charge of one thing that I also there's
- everything about this clinic is so awesome.
- But all of our grants are student procured, which I think is really special. There's no there's
- no professional like helping us raise these grants. And so I think it's a really awesome achievement.
- All of our funding is student procured. And so
- That's one of the goals for the committee this year is trying to diversify where some of our funding
- comes from. As Suki mentioned, so far a lot of it is through IU Affinity Giving, the Women's Leadership
- Council, and Queer Philanthropy Circle, and then community funding from our fundraiser. And we always have
- a philanthropy link on our website that people can donate to at any time, but that's a big goal of our
- finance committee this year is trying to diversify some of our funding sources. It occurred to me that
- the Indiana State Chapter of the National Organization for Women might be, I know in the past that now
- has specifically funded transportation to go vote, so that's kind of a thing at the national level that
- they've been interested in.
- transportation needs for voting. So transportation needs for health care. I could see that. I was thinking
- the same thing, funny enough. So and there's no there's no there's no county chapter here anymore. We
- did have a county chapter for now, but the state still has Indiana State. What was it called again?
- National Organization for Women. And there's an Indiana State chapter.
- Thank you for sharing. That definitely sounds like our values might align. It would be good to get in
- touch. They would want to know about you. Yes. Thank you. That would be great. It was huge. I mean,
- we're always looking for connections because some of us come from out of state. We're all pretty busy
- with our schoolwork, obviously. So we're always looking for a connection or a recommendation for funding
- or community resource or whatever. So we're super open to hearing any suggestions that anyone has.
- tell sorry did you guys have well so tell us how like where can we find information about i know you
- so you have a website social media yeah um we have our instagram gdqc underscore b town is that right
- b town now um our website is gdqc bloomington dot square space dot com
- So yeah, I mean we also have Facebook under the same name you can get in touch with us through any of
- those avenues our appointment Booking link is on our website as well as other contact information if
- anyone Wants to get in touch. We're always available. We will also be tabling at Bloomington pride if
- anyone wants to come chat We're always at Bloomington pride Indie pride Spencer pride
- We're happy to talk if anyone wants to come chat about the clinic. We'll have lots of stickers.
- Thank you. Lots of stickers. Thank you, Susan. Lots of business cards and pamphlets and all of the above
- and a big old poster about all of our offerings. So even if you don't want to come talk to us, you can
- come read about what we do. Can you drive by? Mm-hmm. Jennifer's probably already there going, I wonder
- how I can get involved.
- I was just gonna extend. I'm speaking for myself, but I'm speaking probably for even the ones who aren't
- here, but I would lend my time, resource, anything that I can do, outreach, and come hang out with you
- guys with whatever you need. He's a nurse, too. I mean, with lots of experience.
- Lots of experience. That's amazing. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. When this is a finance
- meeting, I want to come to the finance meeting, because I have a lot, like, I mean, there's a lot of
- us, I think, that would, I would certainly, as you know, I've been, and I know it's hard to figure out
- how to handle donors that aren't student, or not donors, but volunteers, that aren't students that aren't
- affiliated with IU Health that can help, but I know they're, you know,
- I mean, I certainly would, Marty, like, how can I get involved with finance? Because, you know, great
- writing experience is just the resources. And I know it's it's difficult to add that time into it, but
- I know I would certainly be happy to help in any way. Yeah, definitely. I was going to say we so appreciate
- that. And I guess two things. One, currently working on trying to partner with the nursing school so
- that we can
- I mean, benefit to the nursing students and to our patients as well to see a more complete care team.
- And so that's something that we're currently at social work. We have reached out to social work. Yeah,
- I don't think that the we haven't been able to like under what it was because there's something about
- because I remember there was Emily's sibling and there was something weird when we tried to connect
- with them regarding
- I think it was because our patient population isn't students, and they're like, I don't know exactly
- what it was. I remember there was some barrier that partnerships encountered. It can be like a legal
- thing where, so at our clinic, the only people that are allowed to be at the clinic are people that
- are covered by malpractice insurance through IU School of Medicine. So we have tried to partner with
- social work. So it's something that we're working on still. It's sometimes hard to get in touch with everyone.
- I was talking about this with actually Finley a couple days ago, and just in this way, and just in this
- sense of, I want to support, I want to amplify, but also sometimes I'm like, in the political climates
- that we're in, it's like, how do you get out there, but also kind of fly under the radar? Is it frustrating, that is?
- A part of that question for me is how committed, and I know Dr. DK is a big advocate and supporter,
- is that how much support has IU Health committed to? Or is it something you worry about? We don't have
- to talk about it.
- I can't speak too much to the internal workings of IU Health. There are sometimes some moments where
- we are a little concerned, you know, for the future. I will say the Bloomington campus has been supportive.
- for, you know, for the vast majority of what we're trying to do. But it's really just, you know, at
- a state and national level when we start seeing things like the government trying to get involved in
- curriculum and funding is just when we start to get worried because the school has certain things that
- they have to comply with.
- I don't feel like our existence has been threatened at all and we work on one of our priorities for
- that reason is independent funding so that we can make sure that we secure funding outside of the school
- were something to happen to.
- the amount of support that the school and IU Health is able to provide. And I also will say, we are
- medical students through the School of Medicine, obviously, but the clinic is associated with IU Health
- because it is a clinical service. So we sort of exist in both worlds, and that can be kind of an advantage
- because we can provide a clinical service
- and an educational service. And so we have a pretty good
- sort of like a reason to exist in both spheres that is pretty well demonstrated. So, you know, I do
- feel like we have a pretty decent amount of support from our institutions right now. And especially
- the most important part is really support from the students because that's kind of what we need to keep
- going is staff and engaged folks. And so as long as the community and the students are engaged and enthusiastic,
- I think we're going to be good. You know, I mean, we're the women's commission for the county, and we
- advise the county commissioners and the county council. So it occurred to me, like, is there anything
- that the county could do to support? I'm contemplating things like space or storage or, you know,
- I don't know, sharing that you exist as part of Monroe County information. Sharing that we exist is
- probably the number one thing. We really just want to make sure that people know that we're there, especially
- as I said before, our name can perhaps
- seem to kind of put us into a narrow area. But again, we want to emphasize that anyone that is without
- health care right now, which is a growing number of people, is very, very welcome to come to our clinic
- and receive services. So we are always looking to just amplify the word and make sure that people know.
- That would seem like something that Monroe County would be interested in trying to let people know about
- that are in need of health care.
- Okay so let me bridge the gap now and you guys don't have to stay but I want to talk about the data
- and policies committee that we have and the reason why here's my ask will be so we have two committees
- that are a part of the Women's Commission it's just the way we divide up our workflow we have policy
- and data which we just combined recently and then outreach which we have and
- And so a part of, one of the things that we just accomplished over the summer was that we had, we worked
- with a graduate class at the O'Neill School and they did a cohort project for us because one of the
- big things that I'm a big fan of is data. And so we recognize easily that there is,
- no data on women and amazing, I mean hugely marginalized gender. So we, you know, trying to figure out
- who we serve through collection of data. So the project was with this cohort was, you know, collecting
- a survey and collecting data for us. Well, it was, they had a 12 weeks, it was very small. We have their
- report. It was pretty great. But one of the things that we're doing is it's called it's phase two. So
- we have left
- The survey open, it's run through Qualtrics, et cetera, et cetera. We're working on data collection.
- Our campaign theme is Every Voice Matters, help shape the future of women and marginalized genders in
- Monroe County. Obviously, a big part of that is access to health care for that.
- I was like this week, I was like, oh, well, of course, I need to work with them to get help, to have
- the QR code up at the clinic or to wherever, to the survey, because this is the people that we're trying
- to access. And I know, I mean, I've had a couple of the conversations with people that I would, in the
- community that,
- you know, are hesitant about surveys. You know, hesitant about doing, you know, I mean it is anonymous.
- It is, you know, there is no, really I think the most specific data that I'm interested in is zip code,
- where they live just because, you know, in a GIS map I want to know where people live so you know how
- far they are from services, XYZ kind of thing.
- Yeah, so that was probably one of my things is, you know, I was either going to try to come down and
- maybe, hopefully, if I can, during PrideFest and just bring a QR code. Please do. Like, and, you know,
- just try to get, again, just, because it does. I mean, this is very, you know, they go together. I mean,
- we'll eventually have our report. Is this the report through the MCEC?
- Monroe County Health Equity Council. No, OK. Yeah, this is our the data doesn't exist. Yeah, yeah. And
- so I just ask because I knew they also had like grad students working on something or other. So. I mean,
- it just it was like, oh, of course. And I actually did present it today at the commissioners meeting
- where I came and gave them. So we're an advisory body, so we don't get to act
- necessarily on our own, but we get to amplify and be mindful of anything that's happening out there
- to make sure all the voices are heard. One of the big projects that we have been focusing on for many
- years is the jail, to make sure, I don't know if you are even aware of what's happening. I know you
- guys are very busy in your school, but the jail has been sued multiple times by the ACLU for
- you know, unlivable conditions, XYZ. And so they are working on either repairing or building or,
- you know, all these things that they need to do. And so just one of the things that we've been focused
- on is really just in the policy development, is this gender, you know, are women and marginalized genders,
- how are they addressed currently? How are those, you know, when you build, are you considering all these
- factors in this kind of thing? So, I mean, we,
- of the gender equity rubric. Yeah, that's it's separate from that that work, but it is it could be related
- depending on what they're trying to figure out. So there's a gender equity rubric that's mostly mostly
- focused on policy development. So considering considering women and marginalized genders in creating
- creating policy creating new, I guess new law.
- or is this something that you guys developed or something that exists? Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, we
- put it together and shared it and it's out there. So I don't know that it's been used to this point,
- but yes, it's there. So that's really cool. I actually, Susan, I just sent you when you were talking
- about data and numbers, totally agree. I sent you, we put together a 2026 so far report essentially
- on what we've
- accomplished, how many patients we've seen, how much funding we've raised, things like this. So if that
- interests you, I just emailed it to you. And in terms of the academic work, we are working on now setting
- up a database of our patients to know who they are, where they're coming from, all these numbers and
- things so that we can also, as you said, understand where they're coming from, who they are, what they
- need, and why they're here type of thing. So yeah, it sounds like our interest
- are definitely similar and that our data is probably overlapping. Yeah. Yeah. And there is none. Yeah.
- There, I mean, there is, I mean, nothing at this level. You know, there's nothing, you know, because
- this feels very micro. There really isn't anything at the macro level either. And it is, you know,
- I mean, it's just important to know who is here, how we can serve them. And we would love to share.
- if that QR code have it at our table. No, I haven't. That's why I was like, oh, I'm going to go make
- stickers. You said it as an email, though, too. You could email it to them. Yeah. I do a lot of printing
- maybe for them. I would like to get you guys hooked up with Dr. Gloria Howe at the Black Culture Center
- because I think that the LG
- plus could help our community and knowing that you were there. Yeah, please. Yeah, we would love that.
- Yeah, what is your presence like within the cultural centers on campus? I mean, the Black Culture Center, the
- at the beginning we kind of we made the rounds and we put out just like some materials on the on the
- campus but the thing is most of the students are insured I think many
- I'm not certain about this anymore. I think they have to be insured too. I think we do. I think it's
- just grad students. OK, so that might not be correct. Generally, they have the student health clinic
- that a lot of them use. Yeah, the students have the student. And many are insured by their parents.
- So we kind of realized. For Medicaid, Medicaid is their primary insurance. Some, when they come here,
- if they're coming from like us,
- century 21 scholars, they already qualify for Medicaid. So that would be their primary insurance. Yeah.
- So we kind of realized over time that the students aren't necessarily our target demographic. Regardless
- of that, though, we do try to extend information whenever we can. And so do you consider the Student
- Health Center to be LGBTQ plus friendly? They have a specific gender affirming care
- Center that one of our volunteer physicians actually helped to get started. So they actually do have
- really comprehensive Services and provide a lot of affirming care Yeah, yeah, it is really cool in the
- IU affinity grant day that Keller one of our co-chairs and I presented at this year in Indianapolis
- there actually was a physician I
- I cannot remember his name off the top of my head, but from the Student Health Center. And he had a
- very similar poster to ours about procuring funds for gender affirming care services for students. Yeah,
- I mean, it's just crazy. I know this because I work at the med school too. I just you know this is such.
- I mean it is a great and it has so much room to grow, but I also know how crazy busy.
- Everybody is already limited by our own time. Just just like such a shame. But just the biggest bummer.
- Yeah, it's really frustrating. Yeah. And that's why I do think that I mean, it was a medical student
- conceptualized and founded, which I think is really special. But as we're talking about ways to collaborate with
- other members of our community there are people who in theory would be able to dedicate more time than
- we have. Immediately I'm like because I started a non-profit myself last year you know I'm like so what
- needs to happen is it needs you to go out to you know you know I mean technically if you're like okay
- so someone out there in the community starts a non-profit you know that is engaged so that way it
- some of the work comes out of you and it is becoming like, you know, so it comes out of just in the
- med school and now it's like, can be, yeah, that way, you know, we can, you know, people could,
- you know, work on the finance team, still work with the school, but there are other partners that can
- lighten the load. Yeah, no, I mean, it's a really wonderful idea. To be completely honest, it's never
- fully occurred to me that we could have outside partners that,
- I feel like it has been just such an exercise like hybrid independence. You have your blinders on in school.
- This is our whole world is this little bubble right now from a fire hose and multiple fire hoses yeah
- I love that idea because I have I I've thought about it before when I'm thinking about like oh I just
- like wish that we had more time to do. Yeah like I don't even we don't even don't even have time to
- think about.
- I feel like we're in a really awesome spot right now because we've we've expanded our patient base like
- our clinics are fully booked we're offering our lab services we've secured the funding that we need
- to continue existing over the next couple years and so I feel like I mean if there were ever a time
- to explore something like that it's probably now it's at the it's this isn't county but with the city
- they've got the volunteer network so that's where they post
- volunteer opportunities that are available in the community. So if that is something that you have,
- you know, the capacity to have committees that are, you know, filled with folks in the community that
- want to volunteer, that would be one way to. That has been, I, we have. Thank you guys for coming. Let
- me know what I can do. They have my information. Dr. Gloria, I can't remember. Gloria Howe. Yes. She's
- the director of the Neal Marshall. Are you writing that down also?
- Awesome. Thank you. Thank you. You too. But yeah, there definitely is no shortage of interest. We have
- people emailing us, DMing us on Instagram all the time, which is truly incredible. And it is just what
- we're talking about. It's really heartwarming to see. It's only frustrating in the sense that we are
- trying to figure out how to better
- create opportunities. You know, we've had undergrads ask about volunteering, but we can't have them
- in the clinic. So we're like, okay, you know, the places where we could use help is like in fundraising
- and in spreading the word. So we're trying to figure out like established ways. But yeah, again, like
- because we're just, you know, we're only limited by our time. So we try to, I would say that we've really,
- at this point, it took probably about a year to like really
- keep our heads above water and figure out our processes to a point where the clinic is smoothly operating.
- And because we scaled up pretty significantly within the last six months with labs and stuff, it was,
- again, a significant challenge just to figure out how to operate from the day to day. And so now that
- we have done that, now that we have created kind of like a foundation of logistics and stuff,
- Now it's maybe a time that we can expand to the community in a way that we really hoped to.
- So it's really, it is really, really heartwarming to like have people reach out and for you guys to
- invite us and things like this. It's really, we've always, we want to be involved in the community like
- this. It's a value that is like very deeply held. So it's really exciting to have these conversations.
- I'm also thinking like, well, cause you're, one of your stick, one of the big things that, you know,
- we've been talking about here,
- is period poverty, of course, you know, and so, you know, it's like, you know, how much can you add
- on, you know, and it's like, oh, well, you know, maybe, you know, those kind of things because healthcare
- in general and access to everything is, I don't know, hard. How you, how that all gets done and,
- you know, when you're volunteering your time, I understand, like, you know, it's hard and busy and,
- trying to find motivation sometimes when you're drowning in a million other projects is, you know,
- it's a lot, but. Exactly. So. We are too. We really wanted to do this. We did. It's hard, you know,
- but we're really happy to be here. I mean, we're all volunteers to come here and for us even, like,
- you know, all these projects and
- ideas that we have and want to do. And, you know, it's hard when, you know, it's hard coordinating and
- being motivated even when they are passion projects to do so. But I will probably do some stuff and
- either print off and leave for you guys to put down at the tent for tomorrow or Saturday. I don't know
- what day it is.
- So, and then eventually we'll be able to put all of our stuff out, too, and I don't know. Sounds great.
- Absolutely. So much going on all the time. Give them some, they want stickers. What's it going to say?
- I don't know, yeah. Flip through them. So like our nice shiny stickers. I know, those are before I got
- involved. The good stickers. Those are the expensive stickers, though, and that's crucial.
- And even cheap stickers, anyway. It's cost money, man. Is there such thing as a cheap sticker? No, it
- turns out. Thank you. Did you know, and Maria might have mentioned it if she was here tonight,
- What is the vending machine that they have over it gather it is for you know about it. Yeah contraception
- and free contraception and other. Sexual health. So awesome yeah has it was it.
- May of last year or the May before? It was, it's only been about a year maybe, yeah. I know they had
- an event at Gather sometime this year to talk about it, but one of our commissioners was a part of making
- that happen. That's really cool. We should add to our, I know because we, Path for You is normally our
- go to in terms of, do you know where, do you guys know where they sourced their stuff?
- I wonder, is it passed for you? It might, yeah. I mean, HAP, and then who is the representative that
- was there? I would have to look at that. I would have to look through my email. Another organization.
- Totally blanking. We should add it to our... Like a refugee organization, but I think that's totally
- wrong. Oh, like Exodus, maybe? Exodus.
- I'll figure it out. Maybe. We give out similar stuff. We have male and female condoms, latex and latex-free
- lube. We have some Plan B, limited amount, but we have some Plan B, things like this. Yeah, so whatever
- people need sexual health-wise, we try to cover. You know, it's too bad.
- still makes me mad that the clinic closed here with the with the house because that would have been
- a great partnership yeah I think they closed so somewhere around the time that we opened and I was like
- there was still information online about them and so I like showed up at the door and I was like wait
- this is locked yeah but if there was ever anything that you know for expansion purposes bringing something
- like that back and
- me today. Well, we won't make you stay any longer. I mean, we don't have much. So much. It was so nice
- to meet you all. Thank you so much for listening and for letting us speak. Thank you for your work.
- Of course. Thank you for yours. Yes. What's the report show, the graduate student report that they put
- together? What does it show?
- quite a bit behind. Is it like about access or the data that exists for women's health? I'm trying to
- think of... It's always access. Distrust in local government. You can take that. If you want, take it
- and just drop it off to me some other time if you read it. I can bring it back to you tomorrow. Yeah,
- whenever. Yeah, take it.
- Thank you. Yeah, rising utility and energy costs. So real. OK, yeah, for sure. Thank you. Thank you
- guys. OK, have a good one. Oh, trash. What was that? I got food with something. Thank you. Bye. Bye.
- One of my favorite parts about working as a med school
- Well, yeah, I mean, it's always makes you feel hopeful, you know, like people still out there doing
- the work. And, you know, it's the way I feel about, you know, when I work with artists or like,
- you know, people in different cultures that, you know, living outside the norm and still fighting the
- good fight makes me feel amazing.
- I will talk more about, I just, yeah, so I did present today on the project and how we're working towards
- phase two. I gave the commissioners a bound copy of the report and the phase two data collection information.
- I did in my head think, oh, I wanted to go down to pride. I know a couple, I figured they would be helpful.
- letting me be there to try to collect data. And then I know another business, I know a business that's
- going to be down there that would probably be Caveat mDoor, which would probably let me put a QR code
- and information at their table, even though I haven't. Just to try to keep going on collecting more
- data. I just became an owner of the survey.
- And the survey currently is open until October 1st. So we have quite a bit of time to still collect
- more information. And even in the report, one of the suggestions was just, you know, ongoing because
- you want ongoing collection. It's never going to, you know, but you do need to put end dates on it sometimes
- so people actually feel like they need
- to do it. So, um, that's all I have about what I've done. Do you have any parts of the data or policy?
- Because we haven't met yet. No, I just all I've all I'm trying to do is find a time for us to meet.
- So I sent I sent a suggestion for meeting time and we'll see if that works for the two committees to
- meet together. And hopefully that'll get us
- going. Any updates for like outreach that you want to share? We're going out on Sunday. And Julie was
- kind enough to bring us some donations. So Jennifer and I are going to meet up. I'll check in with Tiana.
- We'll do it for longer. So we'll have like a bigger report. I still owe everybody like that plan of
- who we're going to hit. But I figured we might as well just hit Seminary Park again. But we're going
- to bring surveys with us too. Awesome. Yeah.
- We owe you a comprehensive update. I was just going to say there is a, I don't remember, but there is
- another, I think Kathleen was talking about it when she was here or we talked about it later, but there
- is somebody out there in the community already doing this kind of, yeah. So it would be a good idea
- to, you know, yeah.
- work with them and no reason to recreate wheels and, you know, just to be able to continue to provide
- support. I don't recall Kathleen mentioning that when she was here. I don't think she did. I think it
- was after. I'll text her. I'll call her and text her. I'm sure we're not doing double work. I'm willing
- to do double work, but collaboration is always great. I don't even remember what's on the agenda, but
- no new business, any public comment.
- Jodi was on there, she's still there. Anything else? I have nothing else and we're actually, there's
- only three of us now, so we're not a quorum anymore anyway. I do know, I feel like I announced, we know
- this already,
- The next meeting September is not here. It is going to be in showers. I think that was being announced
- like awhile ago, but I will verify that later and make sure that you know everyone is. Yeah. But it
- will be on the same third Thursday at 538, but it won't be in this. They have budget hearings going
- on at that time.
- Anything else? I gotta go to the comedy attic. Maria Bamford. Anyway, it is 642, 643. I'm gonna call
- this meeting adjourned if that is okay. And thank you for coming.