jrcaveroIn 2016, a group of friends concerned about reproductive rights started talking about how they could come together to support women in their community. They began by asking women’s health providers what they saw as the most pressing needs of patients, and how they could support their efforts in meeting these needs.
After a lot of research, listening and will-building in the community, Choose When was born. The goal of Choose When was to help women in Northwest Colorado, with financial barriers to care, access long-acting reversible contraception. The Choose When steering committee settled on this approach after hearing from the women in the community that they wanted more options for birth control than the pill, and that long-acting methods were out of reach for those without insurance or for those needing confidential services.
“The group that started Choose When are all women involved in the community in many different ways. We all see the economic stresses that working families are under in this area; housing, medical costs, inflation. We just want women to be able to manage their own lives.”
– Kathleen Wasserman, Choose When steering committee co-chair
Choose When volunteers began raising money toward their goal and started to reimburse safety-net health clinics for the cost of providing long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) for people who qualified for the program.
Over five years, more than $600,000 dollars were raised and over 500 women received LARCs. Due to the proven success of Choose When in northwest Colorado, Caring for Colorado was interested in trying to scale the program statewide. Our goal is ensuring that every person in Colorado can access their contraception method of choice, regardless of their financial situation.
On Oct 1, 2023, Choose When was transferred to Caring for Colorado. The foundation will follow the Choose When model of individual and foundation fundraising to offset the costs of LARCs for people with financial barriers to care. In 2024, the foundation will begin its efforts to grow Choose When into a statewide solution addressing barriers to care.
