Giving Compass' Take:

• All Access EKY trains young women in Kentucky to advocate for their reproductive health when they might not otherwise have access to information about and resources for their own bodies.

• How can other communities follow this model? Should schools be required to supply complete and accurate reproductive health information? 

• Learn about the growing disparities between states for reproductive health and rights.


There have been times in Hannah Adams’ life when she’d been confused about her body and birth control. Sex education in middle and high school in mountainous eastern Kentucky was severely lacking, she says.

Then she was asked to join a new fellowship program, All Access EKY, that she says changed her life.

All Access began in 2016 as a collaboration between the Kentucky Health Justice Network, the national nonprofit Power to Decide, and Appalshop, the local media and arts organization in Whitesburg where the project is housed. It started as a reimagining of a previous Appalshop program, the East Kentucky Reproductive Health Project, but is specifically focused on increasing access to full-spectrum birth control in the region.

All Access hires young women ages 17 to 22 from Appalachian counties to create media campaigns around reproductive health. Over the course of an eight-week paid fellowship, young women interview other women about their reproductive health experiences, specifically focusing on birth control, and create short educational films. They have also produced social media campaigns, set up tables at local festivals, and distributed printed materials through clinics and local businesses.

Read the full article about training women to advocate for their reproductive health by Ivy Brashear at YES! Magazine.