Clarifications about Island Sexual Health as heard on CBC’s “On The Island” Program
It has come to our attention that there was some inaccurate information given in today’s CBC’s “On the Island” segment and we felt it was important to clarify the following points about our services and our valued funding relationship with Island Health:
- Island Sexual Health offers all community members (inclusive of all ages, genders, orientations, identities, and abilities) not only “women” sexual health care services. Sexual health care services include but are not limited to pap smear testing and family planning (aka birth control). We also see many clients for STI testing, genital exams, pregnancy testing and options, and other sexual health related issues. 35% of our clients identify as male and an ever growing population identify as trans or gender queer.
- We currently hold a contract with Island Health to provide clinical nursing services to the sum of $85,000 yearly. This funding is not indicated for the provision of “family planning services for youth” but rather for the delivery of all clinical nursing services.
- We are currently the only comprehensive sexual health education provider in Greater Victoria to local schools and other community groups on issues that range from puberty, sexual decision making, healthy relationships, STI prevention, contraception, and teaching our children about sexuality. We facilitated education services to 11,264 participants from Kindergarten-Adult in 2012/2013. We have secure funding from several sources in place to continue our well respected education services, they are not threatened by this deficit.
- As a non-profit organization, the current funding deficit of $135,000 or 7.5% of a $1.8 million budget significantly challenges our abilities to provide accessible and high-quality sexual health care. In today’s economy, this level of deficit in a non-profit has the ability to determine whether clinical services at our Quadra Street location continue or not. While we tirelessly seek ways to address this situation, we are not willing to compromise the integrity of our services at the expense of our clients’ health.
- We continue the provision of expert sexual health care services in Greater Victoria and continuously strive to be as innovative and efficient as possible as the expense of service delivery increases and are working hard to address our deficit. We welcome all suggestions for fundraising and avenues of support.
Many thanks to all for your continued support while we work through this situation. Your generosity and support means the world to our organization and, most importantly, to the wellness of our clients.
