Become an Advocate

About Our Advocacy

Venice Family Clinic’s Public Policy Committee and advocacy team work to help L.A.’s diverse patient population access quality health care. We work alongside our patients to promote health policies that improve the lives of our patients and our community.

Learn about the issues our community cares about and join us in taking action to protect health care as a human right.

Key Issues

Reproductive Health

The Trump Administration has proposed changes to Title X, the sole federal program dedicated to providing low-income and uninsured individuals access to family planning and related services. Title X-funded health centers, including Venice Family Clinic, provide essential family planning services to more than 4 million women annually. It is because of these types of services that we are currently at historic lows in the unintended and teen pregnancy rates. Any threat to Title X could jeopardize this, as well as access to a wide range of comprehensive women’s health care, including birth control, STD and HIV testing, cancer screenings, and well-women exams.

 

Public Charge

Venice Family Clinic opposes the administration’s proposed changes to rules about “public charge,” which would change the criteria U.S. immigration officials use to determine whether legal immigrants can stay in the U.S. The new rules would jeopardize the immigration status of anyone who uses public benefit programs such as Medi-Cal, Cal Fresh (SNAP) or housing assistance to meet their basic needs. So some immigrant families are voluntarily not using these programs, even if they are legally entitled to them, for fear that doing so may risk their ability to stay in the U.S. No one should be afraid to ask for help because of their national origin.

Get more information about public charge here.

Read our recent statement on the administrations new rules about public charge here.

Homelessness

Our homeless neighbors need a safe refuge in our community until they can be connected with a permanent home. Venice Family Clinic’s advocates are working with the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica to enact policies that ensure that people experiencing homelessness get the services they need while they are still on the streets, and that they are treated with the dignity and respect we all deserve.

Health Coverage

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed the state to expand Medi-Cal to a record number of Californians, helping nearly 3.5 million more low-income people get health insurance and access affordable health care. But ongoing efforts to repeal the ACA put that progress at risk, so we remain vigilant and ready to speak out against changes that would harm our patients and community.

Advocate Voices

Carolina Monge

Carolina joined the Clinic’s community when she enrolled her son Derek in Children First Early Head Start. In 2018, they traveled with Clinic leadership to Washington, D.C., to emphasize the importance of Head Start and the Affordable Care Act to members of Congress. Carolina passionately spoke about the impact of the Clinic’s comprehensive early childhood program, while 18-month-old Derek charmed every D.C. staffer he saw by giving high fives all around.

“Government support for community health care is vital for me and my child, and it’s important for politicians to see our faces and know how we are impacted. Going to D.C. and advocating showed me just how important this advocacy is and even inspired me to change my college major to work in public service.”

Ken Bascom

Ken Bascom is alive today thanks to the expansion of Medicaid (Medi-Cal) made possible by the Affordable Care Act.

Patricia Sanchez

Patricia Sanchez emigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico, to Los Angeles in 1990 and has been a patient at the Clinic since 1993. This year, she helped the Clinic rally other community members to stand up against proposed changes to “public charge” rules that could harm immigrant families that use programs like Medi-Cal to support their basic needs.

“With so many laws changing, it’s very important to know how these policies could affect us,” Sanchez says. “We need to participate because these changes affect us directly.”