Nevada County Citizens for Choice

Programs & services

Outreach

C.H.O.I.C.E.S.! A new club on the Sierra College Campus:

Citizens for Choice has some exciting news about our outreach team! We are managing to expand and improve our work in the community even in these trying times of financial woes. Kristen Darling, one of our outreach educators, has taken on a big job on with DVSAC as their Prevention Coordinator and has had to cut out some of her work with Citizens for Choice. She remains committed to our mission and will continue to provide street outreach education services once per month in addition to managing her Nevada City satellite baskets. Without an outreach partner for me to work with weekly, different ideas about the focus of outreach began to formulate.

In September, a small group of committed young women who graduated high school and who were trained as peer advocates through the Health Department during their high school years began meeting at Sierra College with intentions of being proactive on their campus. Citizens for Choice made the decision to support this group and to let them be a new focus for outreach. With the consent of Sierra College, a new advocacy club was born - C.H.O.I.C.E.S., Connecting Health Options, Individual Choices, and Educational Services. CHOICES mission is to be a resource to college students on where they can get the health care that they may need, and to become a presence on a college campus in an attempt to engage other proactive people.

Some activities that CHOICES intends to partake in is awareness building campaigns like World AIDS Day, National Condom Week, Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, STD Awareness Month, Love Your Body Week (initiated by NOW), and more. They have weekly meetings that are supported by Citizens for Choice, and provide educational resources to new club members, as well as providing a condom basket on campus. The club is also planning to offer discussion groups on campus that will include topics such as ‘Choice,’ abortion, condom and birth control use, domestic violence, pregnancy options, abstinence and more. Students will be invited to get trained on birth control options, STDs, healthy relationships and more, and will also be given opportunities to educate the community in collaboration with other organizations like CORR, DVSAC and Common Goals.

Citizens for Choice is also now supporting two of these students, Jasmine Moore and Molly Berliner (both 19 years old), who are monitoring the Grass Valley satellite condom baskets. These students are being paid to help their peers have increased ease of access to birth control supplies and relevant information related to their reproductive health. Street outreach will continue once a month with myself and Kristen, and CHOICES students are invited to attend these outreach sessions with the intent of passing this torch to the younger generations whose peer-to-peer work has proven an excellent approach to education. These young advocates will reach their peers with messages that are unbiased in nature and without shame, prejudice, misinformation or confusing fears that our society has placed around sexuality.
With your support Citizens for Choice can continue to serve the community and influence young people to realize personal responsibility in their own reproductive health. At a greater level than ever, your support is continuing to affect social change in Nevada County and to create empowering experiences to the younger generations so that they can make their own healthy and informed decisions. Thank you. This work would not be possible without generous supporters like you.

If you have any ideas or interests in CHOICES or outreach, please do not hesitate to contact me at molaro.sarah@gmail.com. We are always interested in new training and/or presentation opportunities and would love your feedback on ways to be even more effective.

With thanks and warm wishes-
Sarah Molaro

Outreach educators Our Outreach Team is Sarah and Kristen. Both of them can address reproductive health-related questions and concerns and each has over ten years experience in health education training. Since high school (both are graduates of Nevada Union) they have been involved in reproductive justice – as street outreach and as educators to the local community.

Their reputation precedes them as they show up at local hangouts throughout Nevada County and at community events while supplying the community with clinic flyers and educational materials. They are active on a year-round basis, carrying informational baskets containing condoms, lubricants, and reproductive health information. They would be more than happy to receive your donation to Citizens for Choice!

Besides the street outreach they also “table” events – staffing a booth at local events such as markets and street fairs; maintain 20-plus informational baskets at local businesses (we urge you to support our supporters and shop at these stores! See below for a list of the stores); and give presentations about birth control methods including abstinence, STI facts, HIV/AIDS, and self-image. Please contact us if you’d like to book a presentation.

Want to find out more about Sarah and Kristen? Read this bio!

The Clinic!
Reproductive healthcare for women, men, and teens
Mondays 10:30 a.m to 5:00 p.m.
Wednesdays noon to 6:00 p.m.
120 Richardson St., Suite D, Grass Valley (near the South Pine Cafe)

No appointment necessary!

The majority of our clients qualify for Family PACT, a California family planning program which covers the cost of most reproductive healthcare. If you don't qualify for Family PACT, WHS will charge by a sliding scale depending on your salary and how many dependents you have.

530.274.3331 this number will be answered by clinic staff during clinic hours; at all other times, it will go to voice mail and will be retrieved at least weekly.

800.714.8151 for immediate questions or concerns call this
Women's Health Specialist hotline.

Services include:
Pregnancy tests
Birth control (many kind), condoms
Morning-after Pill (emergency contraception)
Abortion referrals, including ride information
STD testing and treatment
HIV testing
Complete gynecological exams
Pre-natal information
Adoption and practical support referrals

Informational baskets
Several local proprietors have volunteered space in their stores to host their own baskets! A smaller version of what the Outreach Educators carry, these baskets contain condoms, lubrication, and reproductive health materials. We thank the following proprietors for helping Citizens for Choice reach our citizens with the information and services they need:

After the Gold Rush Records
Asylum Down
Behind Closed Doors
BriarPatch
Classic Tatoos
Common Goals
CoRR (Community Recovery Resources)
Diamond Tattoo
DVSAC
Foggy Mountain Music
Good Times Skate Shop
Maternity Health Center
Mekka Cafe
The Mine Shaft
Miners Teen Clinic
Nito's T-shirts and Hats
Renegade Classics
Rythyms Cafe
Sacred Bee
Sierra College Health Center
Sierra Mountain Coffee Roasters
Teez Me
Tribal Weaver
WIC (Women, Infants, and Children Services)

Health education forums
Citizens for Choice Staff and Board members occassionally hold a series of health education forums highlighting various reproductive health related topics.

Community presentations
Citizens for Choice Outreach Educators also conduct presentations throughout the community about many different health education topics. Do you have a class or community group for us to visit? Drop us an email

Family Sexuality Education Month
In October many local organizations join Citizens for Choice to present panels, presentations, and discussions on how to talk to your children about sex. If there's a particular area that you would like to discuss or see presented, please let us know.

Health Education Pamphlets are available for Parents and for Teens

Email us!

Blog! We've started a blog - not much yet but share your thoughts!

Teens, check out:
Sex, etc.
FHWC Teens
TeenWire
TeensHealth

The Clinic!
Mondays 10:30 to 5 and
Wednesdays noon to 6.
No appointment necessary!

Our clinic on Richardson St. can see both women and men, age 12 and up, or you can visit:
The Miner's Family Health Center who also sees teens but no longer has specific teen hours. Sometimes known as the Grass Valley Teen Clinic.

Don't be confused by a fake clinic, or "crisis pregnancy centers." They are anti-choice organizations. Watch this video, linked on YouTube, Crisis Pregnancy Centers: A Special Report and read a short article on the local CPC. Some CPCs may be still receiving federal funding - tell Congress to stop federal funding of these fake clinics!

Citizens for Choice now a part of CCRF, California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom.

Are you pregnant and need a ride to your counseling or abortion appointment? ACCESS can help!

Questions about HPV (human papillomavirus)? This Nantional Cancer Institute Fact Sheet is a good source!

Abstinence-only education why you should be concerned