Midwest Access Project
Filling the Gaps - Training Providers in Reproductive Health
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
While most assume that healthcare professionals received training in reproductive health, many of these providers are not competent or do not provide a range of reproductive health services to their patients, including all options contraception and pregnancy counseling, LARC insertion, miscarriage management, and abortion care. Most medical and nursing training programs in the country do not provide adequate education in reproductive health. Some are restricted by institutional policy or conservative state laws or cultural norms, while many are housed in religiously affiliated hospitals that adhere to faith-based prohibitions against reproductive health training and procedures. Trainees who desire comprehensive reproductive health training in these institutions must seek it independently and outside of required curricular frameworks. The associated costs of the training can present additional barriers to those seeking training.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Individual Clinical Training
MAP’s Individual Clinical Training program arranges individually-tailored rotations for physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, and students/trainees of these professions ; trainings range from one-day observations to month-long, hands-on rotations. Topics include: contraception, pregnancy options counseling, abortion, and miscarriage management. MAP trainees come from around the United States, motivated to provide comprehensive reproductive healthcare to their patients but lacking access to the necessary preparatory training. MAP is the only reproductive health training organization nationwide that links and directly coordinates elective reproductive training opportunities for "opt-in" trainees. Since its founding in 2007, MAP has provided individual clinical training experiences to over 320 health care professionals.
Where we work
External reviews

Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
GOAL (1) Train a diverse array of health care professionals who are highly motivated to provide patient-centered, antiracist reproductive health care in their future practice to underserved patient populations, but who lack access to the clinical training to do so.
GOAL (2) Build relationships with organizations and allies in the field to grow opportunities for training nationwide and build supportive community networks for providers.
GOAL (3) MAP will elevate its public profile and expand its capacity to engage new individuals and organizations through external communication, fundraising, and public programming.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To advance goal (1), MAP plans the following activities/outcomes/strategies:
• MAP will run 3 – 4 application cycles in 2022 and provide individual clinical training rotations to 40 people. A committee of board and staff will review each application, identifying those who best reflect MAP’s strategic goal of the program.
• MAP will offer didactic and clinical training rotations in telehealth care and mobile unit care serving rural Minnesota and New Mexico.
• MAP will develop an individual trainee’s motivation to provide by:
(1) exposing early stage learners to comprehensive reproductive health care and moving them toward competence by offering hands on clinical training in later stages of their clinical education;
(2) enriching and lengthening clinical training rotations for current trainees;
(3) accepting returning trainees seeking additional hands on clinical training opportunities.
• MAP will build a diverse pool of trainees who are committed to anti-racist health care and who better reflect the communities they serve by:
(1) collecting demographic and socioeconomic information from applicants;
(2) identifying unrepresented community groups in the applicant pool;
(3) creating targeted outreach strategies to diversify the pool;
(4) assisting trainees with associated costs of clinical training to reduce economic or financial barriers, and
(5) providing an online training module for first time trainees to explore the legacy of racism in healthcare and introduce strategies for building new antiracist patient centered health care models.
• Provide accessible one-time clinical education opportunities. 200 health care providers, students, and advocates receive educational material and information on reproductive topics of interest through 11 workshops and didactic presentations.
To advance goal (2) in 2022, MAP plans the following activities/outcomes/strategies:
• Create a program to offer information, resources, skill building and mentorship to MAP clinical training alum to equip them to reduce barriers and increase access to full scope comprehensive reproductive health care in their communities, practices, and institutions. To begin, in October 2020 MAP created an advisory committee consisting of board, staff, MAP alum, providers, and advocates to help identify barriers providers encounter to providing full scope reproductive health care; share promising strategies to reduce those barriers; and make recommendations for priority activities for the new program. The new Advisory Committee has 22 members and had met twice. MAP will produce a summary of the committee’s work and a program development plan.
• Continue to expand its clinical training network nationwide, focusing on states that protect access to abortion care.
• Host 2 meetings for allies and providers and attend 4 conferences/meetings focused on reproductive health care or advancing the integration of reproductive health care within primary care settings.
• Continue active partici
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
MAP’s Individual Clinical Training model has unique components not reflected in other training programs around the country, making the MAP training experience highly desirable and valued by trainees and our partner trainer sites.
• MAP regularly receives applications for clinical training from residents who report that they do not get the patient volume they need to reach competence and when they train, there are multiple trainees on site so they don’t receive the personalized attention of the preceptors. In contrast, MAP matches trainees with sites to meet individualized training goals, orient trainees to the training and the clinical site(s), support trainees through the training experience, and collect evaluation materials. MAP trainees are the only learners matched with a trainer.
• MAP provides both the trainees and the sites the resources, administrative coordination, orientation, scheduling, and matching that neither of the parties has the time or funds to do on their own.
• Unlike most training partnerships around the country, MAP pays its training sites a well- earned revenue stream to compensate them for the clinic time and expertise they offer MAP trainees.
• Many providers believe that training a new generation is critical to their mission. MAP works with trainers to optimize the quality of the learning experience, provide feedback to trainees, and help trainees progress to the next stage of their training or career in reproductive health. The team effort and demonstration of interdisciplinary collaboration is transparent and explicit in MAP’s practice.
• Our training partners are primarily independent clinics and outpatient health centers. Unlike residency training programs designed in hospital settings, MAP trainees experience what abortion and family planning care is like for the majority of people who provide and access it. As Guttmacher notes, 95% of abortion care occurs in clinics; this “real life” experience offers trainees high procedure volume and the ability to assess whether this care setting is a viable option for their future practice. And for those interested in primary care outpatient provision it also allows them the experience to assess how they can translate the provision of services to that setting.
MAP is the only on-the-ground organization in the Midwest addressing reproductive health training gaps. With thirteen years of expertise in the field, MAP is optimally positioned to overcome the shortage of providers in the Midwest because it is rooted in the local and state health care and advocacy communities.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
2021 Progress on Goals
Related to Goal (1) Clinical Training and Provider Education
MAP’s clinical training network has reopened for our learners. Through the Fall of 2021, MAP completed one special application cycle for family planning rotations and one general application cycle. MAP received 34 applications and accepted 23 for clinical training. Through August, 26 trainees have completed their rotations and 3 are in their rotations now, and they have received a total of 320 training days. 10 rotations are scheduled for the remaining months of 2021. Telehealth and mobile health unit rotations with Just The Pill have started, and we have received very positive feedback from our trainees about these clinical rotations. MAP’s new 2-hour module on anti-racism in healthcare has been recorded and we are creating supplemental resources now. The workshop will be reviewed and evaluated by a small group of accepted trainees, and then it will be a required component of orientation for all new trainees beginning with MAP’s fall cycle.
Through September 2021, MAP offered 10 workshops for 154 participants. Workshops educated participants about patient centered pregnancy options counseling, IUD insertion and removal, all options contraception counseling, and the basics of miscarriage management. For the first time, MAP offered workshops on trauma informed pelvic examination and providing reproductive health care via telehealth. In June 2021 MAP hosted a live online workshop for residents to learn vasectomy care, and each participant received a vasectomy kits to allow them to practice techniques during the workshop. MAP also hosted a virtual workshop for providers interested in learning how to support people managing their own abortion. In September MAP hosted a panel of MAP clinical training alum at the Family Medicine Midwest conference to discuss barriers to clinical training.
Related to Goal (2) Movement Building
MAP attended National Abortion Federation’s Virtual Annual Meeting in May 2021. For the first time in our organization’s history, MAP exhibited virtually. 72 meeting participants engaged with MAP program staff in our virtual booth. MAP also convened a networking session for 25 people during the meeting to connect advocates, clinicians and prospective trainees around areas of shared interest. Based on the success of this opportunity, MAP is open to future virtual conference exhibiting events.
MAP participates in quarterly meetings of the Contraceptive Justice Coalition convened by EverThrive Illinois and the Reproductive Health Access coalition convened by ACLU-IL. Throughout the year, MAP joins a regional meeting of abortion providers convened by New York based RHAP to network and build clinical skills. MAP is a member of a national cohort of groups working to strengthen the abortion provider pipeline. Center for Reproductive Rights and PPFA invited MAP to provide evidence establishing federal jurisdiction for the Congressional record a
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
MAP coordinates clinical training and medical education for medical and nursing students, family medicine residents, OB/GYN residents, physicians, and advanced practice clinicians.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
MAP heard about barriers our clinical trainees faced in their clinical practice, so we have started planning a new program "Resources for Clinicians Expanding Access to Care" to offer them resources, information and support to reduce these barriers.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Midwest Access Project
Board of directorsas of 01/23/2023
Andi Friedman
National Abortion Access Advocate
Term: 2023 - 2025
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/18/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.