For 35 years The Chicago Women's Health Center ( CWHC ) has welcomed individuals seeking gynecological care, alternative insemination, birth control and counseling services to its cozy offices in Wrigleyville. Run on a feminist collective model with sliding scale fees and patient-centered care, CWHC has been lesbian-positive and trans-inclusive since its founding in 1975. The organization serves more than 6,000 Chicagoans each year through its direct services and outreach and education programs including a comprehensive, LGBTQ-inclusive sex education program with the Chicago Public School. CWHC is bursting at the seams in their current space and are engaged in a grassroots campaign to raise funds for a move to larger, fully handicapped accessible offices.
Local jazz favorite Elaine Dame is a longtime client of the center. She is donating the evening's entertainment because she wants "to give back to this organization that has helped me and so many others. I hope the community will join with me."
"We are the oldest collectively run women's health center in the country. The women who founded CWHC were a combination of doctors, nurses, health educators and activists who came out of the 1970s women's health movement and were frustrated with the state of access [ to health care ] for marginalized populations and the patriarchal model of health care," said CWHC Director Ali McDonald. The center was founded as a collective of volunteers with everyone—including physicians—sharing a full range of responsibilities.
"As the organization grew we slowly added some paid staff, and are now considered a modified collective, said McDonald, who does not provide medical services, but shares responsibilities for everything administrative including garbage take-out. "We've been really deliberate with our growth. I don't think we're any less radical or progressive than we were when we were founded. We've stayed really true to our foremothers and what they wanted to start." Now, with 25 paid staff members who all contribute volunteer hours plus additional volunteers, the center is able to provide bilingual ( English/Spanish ) medical, wellness ( including acupuncture and massage ) and counseling services approximately 65 hours per week.
"Things have shifted a lot in 35 years, but in the past it was crazy the way women were treated when they would go to the doctor … people had hysterectomies without knowing that that was what was going to happen to them." The focus of the women's health movement was on empowerment and education and keeping the patient informed about what is going on, and this continues to be a central theme of CWHC's services, explained the 32-year-old McDonald, a queer woman who joined the center's team in 2006.
CWHC's individual and group counseling services are extensive. Their newest venture, in partnership with Howard Brown, is called Partners in Transition, a group for individuals whose partners are transitioning genders from female to male. The idea came from a recurring theme that had been emerging in individual counseling sessions with people who were either transitioning themselves or whose partners were and the couple needed support navigating the new terrain. "It seemed like a really great way to build community and provide some extra support networks," said McDonald, who emphasized that the center's counseling and medical services serve both male to female and female to male transgender people.
Both a client and a board member, transman Riley Johnson worked with CWHC to establish their TGAP ( Transmasculine Gynecology Access Program ) which provides transmen, butches and genderqueers advocacy and support around and during gynecological care. "CWHC fills an urgent need for those of us who fall through the cracks of mainstream healthcare," said Johnson. "By using a client/provider team approach, the folks at CWHC have helped me to understand all of my options and move forward on a trajectory and pace of my choosing. After years of going to mainstream health providers that didn't always respect my identity, my circumstances or my choices, CWHC is a refreshing change from business as usual."
Most of the center's clients are in their 20s and 30s, but McDonald likes that the age range has broadened over time. "Some women have been coming since the day we opened. So we see older folks and also people who've had children and then when their girls are ready to come in for their first gynie exam the mother will want them to come to us. That's how we encompass a broader range instead of just that middle."
The financial access issue is a major element of CWHC's mission. "Every program has a sliding scale fee and if clients fall outside of the scale, we work with them to do different payment arrangements so that they are able to afford care. We don't want anyone's financial situation to dictate what kind of care they are able to receive," said McDonald. "We do see clients with insurance, but the majority of our clients are uninsured or underinsured. Something that is unique about CWCS is that when someone calls to make an appointment, we do not ask them if they have insurance or not. We don't have an insured list and an uninsured list. Our clients tell us that they really appreciate the absence of a sense of judgment or a difference in priority."
CWHC takes no government funds. "We've never accepted any government funding. That is a part of our ideals," said McDonald. "We will not accept government money because lots of times that money comes with instructions on how you speak with clients, what kind of services you provide, and we don't ever want to get money that's going to tell us how to work with clients. What the client says is important, not some paper pusher in an office." This commitment means they have not been hit with a drop in government grants, a situation recently suffered by many not for profits. But money is increasingly tight.
More than half of the center's budget is made up of earned income from insurance payments and client fees, although no one is ever turned away because of an inability to pay. McDonald said that this revenue stream has decreased because of an increase in uninsured clients as well as a drop in those clients' ability to pay. Foundations provide the next largest chunk of money, with major funders Ravenswood Health Care Foundation, Polk Brothers Foundation and the Texas-based Topfer Family Foundation supporting medical services and outreach programs. These have suffered a reduction due to market hits in foundation investments. Individual giving and special events make up the rest of the budget.
CWHC began providing alternative insemination ( AI ) services for lesbians, bisexual, queer, single women and transgender people in 1983, the first such service in the Midwest. "It was a social justice issue," said McDonald.
Recent AI clients Kirstin and Sarah are now moms to a 19-month-old daughter. The Edgewater couple explained that it is still "difficult for lesbian couples to find an emotionally safe healthcare program for family planning. One of the things we liked most about CWHC's approach was that they completely understood that the AI process was an important experience for both of us as a couple.
"The health care practitioners at CWHC have a deep respect for women's bodies, the emotional experience of trying to conceive and the diversity of family arrangements. CWHC has very strong word-of-mouth among the LGBT community and lesbians, in particular. We were aware that they take a feminist—respectful, normalizing, liberal—perspective of women's sexuality and that made us feel very comfortable going there for AI services. We will be forever grateful to the CWHC for helping us start our family. I can't think of any greater gift to the community. We will always refer our friends to the CWHC."
Elaine Dame moved from Los Angeles to Chicago in 1992 to pursue a career in theater and was, like most artists, underinsured. Seeking competent and affordable gynecological care she heard about CWHC. "I went there and was immediately impressed. It was different from any other place…you immediately feel comfortable and at ease as a woman. It's a supportive environment and they take such good care of you."
Blujazz recording artist and jazz vocalist Dame has been performing in and around Chicago and the Midwest for the past ten years at venues including Pops for Champagne, Andy's Jazz Club, Katerina's, The Pump Room, Green Dolphin Street, Pete Miller's, The Drake Hotel and the Fairmont Hotel. Jazz critic Neil Tesser calls Dame's voice "clarified honey…combin [ ing ] a hearty sweetness and a welcome translucence." TimeOut Chicago said that "Dame continues to be a gem in the city's vocal jazz scene" while the Chicago Reader has noted that Dame has "a winning stage presence and a chameleon-like vocal flexibility."
More information on the Chicago Women's Health Center is at www.chicagowomenshealthcenter.org .
A benefit for CWHC featuring the Elaine Dame Trio will be held at Roscoe's Tavern, 3356 N. Halsted, on Monday, May 10, 6-9 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Purchase tickets online at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/103313. For more information call CWHC at 773-935-6126. Appearing with vocalist Elaine Dame, are Andy Brown on guitar, Joe Policastro on bass and guest vocalist Paul Marinaro. Refreshments provided by Whole Foods.
