20th, it is 534. 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 in marginalized genders in all areas of county
life. The first order of business is to send out the minutes. Did we have any?
of Commissioner Medina. I fixed that. And I still owe us May, though. For the one that we got. This
is just for July. July. July. Yes. Do we have a motion to pass July's minutes? I will move to approve
July minutes. I second. All in favor say aye. Aye.
Commissioner updates, we'll 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 3 to 4 p.m. in Combo
Room Meeting Room 1B slash C. So, yeah, get a big room.
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 Bellman. Julie, did you have anything else?
No. My only updates update is I did talk to Commissioner Yarrow earlier this week and they will be coming
back starting next week or next month. So that's good. 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 our community cookout which they scheduled for this Saturday August 22nd at 2026
from 11 to 3. It is out at Monroe Fire Station 21 which is at 9094 South Strainridge Road. It's open
to everybody and they usually have a lot of fun and they are doing the food pantry
donation collection for Smithville Food Pantry and Grace Center Food Pantry. Usually are a lot of fun,
especially very family oriented and highly recommend if you ever have a chance to go meet those people.
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? I think it's like one-ish, two-ish. Two? Yeah. Two to what? Two to eight. Yeah.
Just go to Kirkwood. Yeah, Kirkwood. Yeah, they're closing the street, right? And I think the weather's
going to be nice, hopefully. It's going to be great.
come up in old business. We're gonna, let's, I know we didn't introduce ourselves when we started. Why
don't you just, so this is, where they're gonna, 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.
You know who I am. I'm Susan slash Gus. 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. And 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, uh,
That's why I was hoping you guys could come share with us and that actually I'm gonna have an ask as
well that I realized. So they're gonna, TSD, sorry. So can you promote Sage Sweeney? Cause she's gonna,
they're gonna present, do a presentation for us.
Thank you. All right. Ready? I'm ready. Awesome. 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.
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 healthcare 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 why we exist. 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 lack of LGBTQ competent
healthcare providers in our country.
So a little bit on health care disparities. In terms of physical health, LGBTQ adults face
greater cardiovascular disease risk, greater incidence of eating disorders and disordered 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 of LGBTQ 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 healthcare disparity
gaps that we're seeing in Southern and Central Indiana. So Suki is gonna 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.
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 a field, rather than in discussing cisgender patient concerns.
The knowledge gap permeates all facets of health care. So not only is it about sexual health as we as
we've discussed that the trust relationship that can come along with having these discussions with your
provider can really improve health care and improve the patient relationship in In all like in all facets
of the health of health care and all
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 that 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. So
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 Disman-Keshe
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 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 the medical students that do 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 can do a lot, and it is really, really exciting that we can offer
a more whole and kind of like holistic health care 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 education
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't 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 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 clinic. 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. We're able to see about five or six
new patient a month
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 Sail fundraiser. 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 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
We have a lot of fun events. We have boobies and penises, and they give them 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 family friendly. I won't say that. But it's a really fun event. And we really like to engage with
our community. And yeah, we're just hoping to keep expanding.
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 CISHEP patient in our community or in Indiana,
because we just believe that primary health care is a right for everyone and anyone.
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 who 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. And I know 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 offer, right? And then what about, I don't know what HealthNut
does anymore.
They do it all. They have psych services, dental. They do it all. They have a pharmacy there also. Yeah,
we've sent a few patients. We've given patients Health Net's information because we don't have an OBGYN
on site and things like that. So Health Net's able to provide more specialty services than we are,
for sure. Would you say that are they LGBTQ plus friends? Like, I would assume, but I mean, actually
I don't want to assume. I would say so. Yeah, we've talked to them and they are. Yeah.
complimentary in a way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. We provide similar services, definitely. And
we met with them in the beginning to discuss how we could complement each other's services. I would
say that we provide maybe more specialized service. But we absolutely endorse their clinic as well.
And we just hope that we can 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.
Yeah, 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 do have a pretty 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, someone does need a more urgent visit or something like that
help that may be a better option in terms of just like, you know, accessing services quicker.
But yeah, we're hoping to be a little bit more flexible in the future So how how long I may miss this
how long has the clinic existed when did 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 services
are showing up in the community? And that's a constant conversation that's kind of 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 I and our co-chairs 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 too? 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 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.
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, Stonebell 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, and we have
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, 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.
Med student participation, is it picking up or is it kind of 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 pulling teeth to get people. No, 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 cool. We're
having like the incoming first years right now. 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
chose Bloomington, which just makes us really, really happy. Does IU know this?
Yes, yes, yes. Dean Hitler is pretty supportive of the clinic. And I think that having the clinic here
is a big boon for Bloomington. It gives students a really important exposure to patients and really,
really useful clinical experience, not only the fact that it's
underrepresented portion of health care, but it's just an experience. It's a chance to interact with
patients. So yeah, I think 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. You said this is like giving med students experience. Is it
counting towards getting the degree? Like, 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 and
as a volunteer activity, I mean, 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.
And 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 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 professional
helping us write these grants. And so I think it's a really awesome achievement. All of our funding
is student procured.
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.
transportation needs for health care, I could see that. I was thinking the same thing, funny enough.
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, because that definitely sounds like our values might align. It would
be good to get in touch. They would want to know about you. Thank you. That would be great. It was huge.
I mean, we're always looking for connections because, like, you know, some of us come from out of state.
We're all pretty busy with our schoolwork, obviously. So we're always looking for, like, a connection
or a recommendation for funding or community resource or whatever. So we're super open to hearing any
suggestions that anyone has. So tell us how, like, where can we find information about?
You have a website, social media. Yeah. We have our Instagram, gdqc underscore btown. Is that right?
Btown now? Our website is gdqcbloomington.squarespace.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 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 But if there's probably already they're
going I wonder how I can get involved get him I was just gonna extend I speak I'm speaking for myself,
but I'm speaking probably Even the ones who aren't here, but I would lend my time resource
Anything that I could do an 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 Finance meeting I want to come to the finance
meeting because I have 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 experiences, just the resources, and I know it's difficult to add that time into it, but I know
I would certainly be happy to help in any way.
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 that we haven't been able to like I remember
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 kind of like
a legal thing. 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 of, and I just
in this sense of, you know, like I want to support, I want to like amplify, but also sometimes I'm like
in the political climates that we're in, you know, it's like, how do you like get out there, but also
kind of fly under the radar. And so, you know, I mean, is it frustrating that is. And so I guess,
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
where we are a little concerned for the future. I will say the Bloomington campus has been supportive
for the vast majority of what we're trying to do, but it's really just 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.
Personally, 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 the support from the
students because that's kind of what
we need to keep going as staff and engaged folks. And so as long as the community and the students are
engaged and enthusiastic, I think we're gonna be good. 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. 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.
One of the things that we just accomplished over the summer was that 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 recognized 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 right 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 do 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, OK. Yeah, this is our own. The data doesn't exist. Yeah,
yeah. And so I just asked because I knew they also had like grad students working on something or other.
So I mean, it just 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 at 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,
produced, I'm pointing at Julie, the gender equity rubric. It's separate from that work, but it could
be related depending on what they're trying to figure out. So there's a gender equity rubric that's
mostly focused on policy development. So considering women and marginalized genders in creating new
policy, creating new law,
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 it's out there. So I don't know that it's been used to this point
But yes, it's it's there. So that's really cool. I actually season I just sent you when you were talking
about data and numbers Totally agree. I send 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. And there is none. I mean, nothing
at this level. There's nothing, because this feels very micro. There really isn't anything at the macro
level either. And it's just important to know who is here, how we can serve them. We would love to share.
if that QR code, have it at our table. That's why I was like, oh, I'm going to go make stickers and
print out. That's an email, though, too. You can email it to them. I do a lot of printing, maybe,
for them. I'd like to get you guys hooked up with Dr. Gloria Howe at the Black Culture Center, because
I think that the LG
could help our community and knowing that you are there. Yeah, please. We would love that. Yeah, what
is your presence like within the cultural centers on campus? I mean, the Black Culture Center. At the
beginning, we made the rounds, and we put out just some materials on the campus. But the thing is, most
of the students are insured.
I'm not certain about this anymore. I think they have to be insured, too. I think we do. Oh, maybe it's
just the grad students. I think it's just grad students. OK, 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. Or 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. 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 through the Student Health Center. 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,
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.
Mm-hmm. I mean, and it's just crazy. I know this because I work at the med school, too. I just,
you know, because 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 like such a shame. This is 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 nonprofit 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, OK, so someone out there in the community starts a nonprofit, you know, that is engaged.
So that way, 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 help us. I feel like it has been just such a,
I feel like you have your blinders on in school. We're definitely like, this is our whole world, this
little bubble right now. You're drinking from a fire hose and multiple fire hoses. I love that idea
because I've thought about it before when I'm thinking about, oh, I just wish that we had more time
to do more.
You don't even have time to think about how people can help us. I feel like we're in a really awesome
spot right now because we've expanded our patient base. 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 of
years. And so I feel like if there were ever a time to explore something like that, it's probably now
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, the capacity
to have committees that are filled with folks in the community that want to volunteer, that would be
one way to... That has been... 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 reading that down also? Okay. Awesome. Oh, thank you.
Thank you. But yeah, there definitely is no shortage of interest from, 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 where I'm like,
really heartwarming to see. It's only frustrating in the sense that we are trying to figure out how
to better create opportunities. We've had undergrads ask about volunteering, but we can't have them
in the clinic. So we're like, OK, the places where we could use help is in fundraising and in spreading
the word. So we're trying to figure out established ways. But yeah, again, because we're just morally
limited by our time,
I would say that we've really, at this point, it took probably about a year to 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
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, and it's 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.
of the big things that we've been talking about here is period poverty, of course. And so it's like,
how much can you add on? And it's like, oh, well, maybe those kind of things, because health care in
general and access to everything is, I don't know, hard. How that all gets done. And when you're volunteering
your time, I understand it's hard.
busy and trying to find motivation sometimes when you're drowning in a million other projects is a lot.
Exactly. We are too. We really wanted to do this. We did. It's hard, but we're really happy to be here.
We're all volunteers to come here, and for us even, all these projects and
ideas that we have and want to do and it's hard when it's hard coordinating and being motivated even
when they are passion projects to do. 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 is that 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. There's so much going on all the time. Give them, they want stickers. What's he gonna say?
I don't know, but yeah. Flip through them. They want stickers. 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? Oh, it
turns out. Thank you. You guys, did you know? And Maria might have mentioned it if she was here tonight.
What is the vending machine that they have over at Gather? It is for, do you know about it?
Yes, contraception and free contraception and other sexual health. So awesome. Was it May of last year
or the May before? It's only been about a year maybe. I know they had an event at Gather this year to
talk about it, but one of our commissioners was a part of
that started. That's really cool. We should add to our I know because we path for you is normally our
our go to in terms of you do you know where do you know where they sourced their stuff I wonder is it
path for you it might yeah I mean half and then who is the representative that was there
I would have to look through my email. Another organization. Totally blanking. Like a refugee organization,
but I think that's totally wrong. Oh, like Exodus maybe? Exodus. I'll figure it out.
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, because it still makes me mad that the clinic
closed here with the health, because that would have also been a great...
partnership? Yeah, I think they closed 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. It still irks me today. Well, we won't make you stay any longer. I mean, we don't have much
Thank you 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? Yep. And are quite a bit behind. Oh, yeah.
No way. Is it about access or?
Yes. The data that exists for women's health or disparity in income? 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.
Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Rising utility and energy costs. So real. OK. Yeah, for sure. Thank you.
Thank you, guys. OK.
Hi. My favorite part 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
I feel amazing. But I will talk more about, 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.
in my head think, oh, I wanted to go down to Pride. I know a couple, I figured they would be helpful
in letting me be there to try to collect data. And then I know another business, I know a business that's
gonna be down there that would probably be Caveat and Thor, 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 ongoing, because you want ongoing collections.
need to put end dates on it sometimes so people actually feel like they need to do it. 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'm trying to do is find a time for us to meet, so 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 outreach that you wanna share? We're going out on Sunday, and Julia was kind enough
to bring us some donations, so Jennifer and I are gonna 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 gonna hit, but I figured we might as well just hit Seminary Park again since it's a bit, but
we're gonna bring surveys with us too. Awesome. Yeah. We owe you a comprehensive update. I was just
gonna 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 thing. 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.
We're not 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.
have nothing else and we're actually like there's only three of us now so we're not a quorum anymore
anyway but I do know I can't I feel like I announced we know this already but the next meeting September
is not here it is gonna be in showers I think that was been announced like a while ago but I will verify
that later and make sure that you know everyone is
but it will be on the same third Thursday at 5.30, 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 6.42,
6.43. I'm gonna call this meeting adjourned if that is okay. And thank you for coming.