Serving Learning Proposal For VOX (Voices for Planned Parenthood)
By: Devorah W., Ashannie C., Chelsea D., Joel K., Zach P., Trinidy M. 
September 27, 2012 
Meredith Tweed 
WST 3015 

Community Partner Profile:

Community Partner: VOX, Voices For Planned Parenthood UCF 
Contact: Megan Pabian - Leader of communications for Health Services and Anna V. Eskamani - Development Coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando.

Community Partner Mission Statement: “VOX is the Latin word for "voice" and VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood is a nationwide program to energize and mobilize the new generation of pro-choice Americans. VOX aims to educate and inspire a new generation of young adults to advocate reproductive freedom.” 

Political and/or Social Basis for Organization: 
VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood is a sexual health and reproductive rights group. The UCF chapter focuses on education, access and community.  The mission of VOX UCF is to educate the university community about reproductive health and rights, to translate increased awareness into pro-choice activism on campus, and to serve as a coalition partner to state, national, and international reproductive rights efforts. 
Community Partner Needs: VOX needs students to help organize public events, to help educate those who are unaware and give more knowledge to those who are already informed. Along with the needs that VOX already imposes we will be working closely with them to petition for free screening twice a month at the UCF campus, which will in turn help VOX reach out to individuals.


The Proposal:
According to the American Social Health Association “more than half of the population will have a Sexually Transmitted Disease/Sexually Transmitted Infection by the age of 25.  Presently it is estimated that 65 million of the American population has a viral STD/STI and every year, there are at least "19 million new cases which some are curable."
HIV testing is readily available on the UCF campus weekly at a low cost although, tests for the other sexually transmitted diseases are offered free once or twice a year. If the screenings were offered more frequently, and information made more available on the prevention and cures of the STD/STI’s, unnecessary spreading would subside.
Untreated STI’s in women can lead to infertility or cervical cancer such as the Human Papilloma Virus and Chlamydia, which often show no symptoms.  Other STI’s that cannot be “cured” such as Herpes can be managed if detected.  It is estimated that 90 percent of those infected with herpes do not know that they have it.  The CDC recommends that sexually active females 25 and under should be screened at least once a year for Chlamydia, even if no symptoms are present.
Because many young adults are sometimes embarrassed to ask questions and are unaware of STI's there is poor knowledge about the issue and should therefore be implemented any way possible. The reason why the term "young adult" was used is because we are working to create awareness and get these STI screenings on campus, which would be very convenient for individuals. However, STI screenings should not be limited to only young adults it should be conveniently accessible to individuals of all ages.

Plan Proposal:

 As we have identified above the problem is unawareness. Our plan to fix the issue of STI’s on campus is to start with awareness. We will begin by educating UCF of how dangerous STI’s can be when untreated, as well as how UCF only offers two free screenings a semester for a select 150 students. This means that in a campus where we have over 60,000 students less than 1% of students are getting tested at the health clinic for free. As a student we are offered many services for the benefit of our heath, we are offered psychological counseling, certain medical treatments, and many other important benefits, STI screenings should be one of them.  In our proposal we plan to start a petition where we get UCF students and faculty members to sign off on a petition requesting free STI testing once a month at the UCF health clinic. By spreading awareness of this issue and getting signatures we will not only be spreading our mission of free STI testing but also spreading awareness of the importance of STI testing in general, thus more people on campus will be tested. The ultimate goal of our project is to not only raise awareness of how important testing is on our own campus, but how important it is that everyone get tested.

Rationale:
Awareness of STD/STI’s is crucial for the physical health of women in general.  “The term, STI refers to more than 25 diseases, including herpes, genital warts, pubic lice, (“crabs”), chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV. “ (Kirk, Gwyn; Okazawa-Rey, Margo, pg 215).  “M. Joycelyn Elders, MD, the 15th Surgeon General of the United States says, “I think our first priority would be that every person is allowed to enjoy their sexuality to the greatest extent possible, as long as it doesn’t come at the expense of another.” As we enter a more progressive time that discussing women’s sexuality is not considered taboo, education of the risks and why screening is important would give women freedom to enjoy sex without repercussion or spreading infection.

Women’s studies advocates freedom to discuss and educate without fear of ridicule for women attempting to take their sexual health into their own hands.  There are those in our society that want to take away the progress that has taken so many years to gain.  If STD/STI’s are allowed to fester in our society, many will pay the price for not taking action.  Sexual freedom has new meaning in this day and age and responsibility for one’s safety must be taught and comprehended by the young adults at risk of ruining their lives only because of ignorance.  Women of all ages need to be proud of their sexuality, as Rosemarie Garland Thompson states: “within Western thought, female bodies and disabled bodies are viewed as deviant and inferior.” (Kirk, Gwyn; Okazawa-Rey, Margo, pg 207) This kind of thinking  has prevented communication of the dangers and pleasures of sex within our society.


-  Kirk, Gwyn; Okazawa-Rey, Margo.  Women’s Lives.  New York:  McGraw
   Hill higher education, 2010.

-  Elders, Joycelyn M. MD, . Sexual Health.  2012.  <ashastd.org>


Action:
 Presenting a petition demonstrating the need for comprehensive STI testing- testing that includes chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes types 1 and 2, HPV, and HIV- on campus at least once a month propels our plan into action. While it is true that the Health Center offers free STI testing twice a semester and Planned Parenthood offers testing at their health centers for an incredibly discounted rate, the reality is however, there are students who live on campus that do not have access to transportation; the reality is, there are students who have never heard of Planned Parenthood. When UCF offers testing only a few times a year, the reality is, students are not being given equal access to the comprehensive healthcare they so deserve. In order to complete our project, we will need pens, petitions, and passion. The individual group members responsibilies/tasks will be to reach a quota per week in the number of signatures in order to successfully manage our project.
We will start by creating the petition. After writing the petition we will go into highly populated areas around campus (the gym, student union, memorial mall, outside of classes, etc) and try and grab people’s attention so that we can get as many signatures as possible. After getting signatures we will present the petition to the administration. Even if our petition is unsuccessful it will raise awareness to the issue of STI testing on campus and the students will start to understand just how important it is that we have free testing available on campus.



Timeline:

October – December: The month of October is GYT: Get Yourself Tested month and in honor of this we will begin collecting petitions in order to reach the goal of getting free STI testing on campus twice a month. This is in partnership with MTV, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the CDC and Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and other national partners.


Works Cited
American Social Health Association. (1998). Sexually transmitted diseases in America: How many cases and at what cost? Research Triangle Park, NC: American Social Health Association.

"It's Your Sex Life." About GYT. MTV Channel, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012.

Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives 4th ed. New York: Women’s Bodies, Women’s Health. McGraw-Hill, 2007.

Introductory letter

My birth name is Trinidy Mitchell, I go by Shelly.  I am from the Southwest and still have family ties to that area. My Grandfather and Grandmother retired in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico and raised pecans and pistachios among the many fruit trees that thrive in the desert air.  Orlando and Daytona have been my home base since 1985 and hopefully will be until retirement.   I have two dogs and a monkey; my dogs are one older Corgi and a rescue puppy from the Orlando Shelter.  Phinneas is an aborial tree monkey from the new world. She is a cotton top tamarin , a squirrel sized monkey from the Callitrichidae family. She is three years old , and a major handful defiantly not a good pet.

I am in my senior year at UCF and my major is Psychology.  Women’s Studies interested me because I eventually want to work in the area of Social Work involving women and children of abusive family circumstances.  I would like to learn how to show women, girls and young boys that many of the cultural views of women need to be re-learned.  Women are the basis and strength of many civilizations and learning to impose this strength without creating anger to certain groups or individuals would be an accomplishment.  My granfather did most of his career in liquid natural gas production in Algeria, Northern Africa.  When we visited him and my grandmother, my mother, myself and my two sisters were not allowed to leave the airport without a male escort, we were not allowed to go into restaurants because we were female, he would go in and buy us a soda and some bread and bring it out to the sidewalk for us to eat.  In the evenings, only men were out of the homes and women were not allowed to drive.  His explanation of the cultural differences was a lifelong lesson and a valuable one.  He taught me and my sisters that we should not judge other cultures but instead, learn the differences and conduct our lives in a manner of acceptance of these differences.  He also expressed to never accept treatment from any individual or group that would make us look or feel inferior because of our gender and to do so without creating a hostile environment that could cause bodily harm.  He stressed that education of both genders creates equality but not to the extent that he would consider fair to the female.  He made that statement years ago and although I have seen improvements in the struggle of equality for women in the United States, I have also noticed other cultures beginning to break through the binds as well and would have to contribute this movement to universal communication and education.  I make the claim of noticed improvements from watching my mother go from a company with no female upper management to all but one female management staff in a course of twenty years.  I remember her saying that she would never be chosen for a job because of the “good ole boy syndrome”, which seems to have been squelched more than just a little bit.