Funding Area: Health
Exhale Pro-Voice is the premier organization supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of people after their abortions and their loved ones. Our history began the year 2000, founded by and for people who have had abortions. We provide – and train others in providing – nonjudgmental after-abortion support.
Since our founding, Exhale Pro-Voice has been at the forefront of creating cultural change in how we discuss abortions and emotional wellbeing. We have partnered with the media to shift public dialogue; we have advised advocates on communications strategies; we have supported efforts for new emotional health research; and we have educated medical and mental healthcare providers to increase the quality and availability of nonjudgmental, Pro-Voice after-abortion counseling.
Projects We Support
Pro-Voice Abortion Support Training Program
We will expand upon our current peer-counselor training by developing a multi-tier, Continuing Education (CE) certified Pro-Voice Training Program designed for individuals outside of our organization who want to learn about the Pro-Voice framework, as well as organizations that support people with abortion experiences. Through this training program, participants will be better able to combat abortion stigma in their everyday and professional lives, namely by being able to better recognize stigma and providing more nuanced support to people after their abortions and thus supporting their mental health.
We have very slowly begun to build out the Exhale Pro-Voice Training Program curriculum to include multiple offerings, ranging from a one-day condensed training to a multi-week training, to accommodate the needs of a wide variety of organizations and individuals. Our Pro-Voice curriculum is evidence-based, pragmatic, and applies the cultural humility framework. This grant will allow us to hire two Training Specialists to effectively launch this Program. The Training Specialists will finalize our new varieties of trainings and deliver them, secure CE certification for our courses, and build mutually-beneficial training partnerships with individuals and organizations. Given the value of our training and the capacity we would be able to maintain with paid staff dedicated to this project, we anticipate this project to be largely financially self-sustaining.
The Exhale Pro-Voice Training Program will provide us with an invaluable opportunity to further support people with abortion experiences, and to bring more awareness to our textline. The more people who can receive our Pro-Voice training, the more people there will be in reproductive and mental health spaces that know how to effectively support folks around their abortions in a time when stigma and shame is rampant.
Support Dates: March, 2023 – – March, 2024
