LAccess to Pads. Period.

Health Care Access

County of Los Angeles

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

In Los Angeles 1.4 million people live in poverty, and we estimate 400,000 Angelenos can't afford pads or tampons. Even though Period. End of Sentence. was set in India, our film sparked a global conversation about menstruation, revealing period poverty is not only a major issue worldwide, but rampant in Los Angeles. The morning after accepting the Oscar, our founder woke to a flood of emails. One read: "I cried when I watched the little girls who had never seen a pad. I grew up in Compton and, as a 13-year-old, my family had no money for pads, so I made pads out of old socks." It was then we decided to provide access to products here at home. The Pad Project partners with NGOs, schools, and shelters to provide access to menstrual products in 15 countries and 26 states. We're applying for your grant to build a LA distribution program and respond to the growing demand from our community. With your help, we can end menstrual poverty for all Angelenos.

In the last 3 years, we partnered with 6 LA-based organizations to provide access to over 100,000 products. Our partnerships have a proven track record of success; however, LA's current distribution landscape is fragmented, inefficient, and limited. With the help of the LA 2050 grant, The Pad Project can establish "LAccess to Pads" and become Los Angeles's leading provider, distributor, and educator for menstrual health. In December 2022, we started our local access program. Since then, we have distributed 2,600 menstrual kits, however, with limited staff, we cannot meet the increasing demand for products. To institute LAccess to Pads as LA County's Menstrual Health Hub, we need funds to expand in 3 areas: oversight, education, and distribution. First, we need to hire a dedicated staff member to liaise with LA-based organizations serving vulnerable populations, to monitor and evaluate our programs, to coordinate the purchase of products, and to facilitate product distribution. This staff member would also serve on California-based coalitions to promote menstrual equity legislation. Second, while we provide educational resources and offer leadership training for gender equity advocates; with increased funding, we can expand and tailor our LA-based programs to offer summits and workshops for communities, schools, and universities. Third, we would create 8,000 menstrual kits for low-income teens and families and increase the number of Angelenos we serve in year one.

Our short term goal is to establish "LAccess to Pads" as LA's premier Menstrual Health (MH) Hub. Shelters, schools, and grassroots organizations would turn to The Pad Project's MH Hub to address their menstrual health needs. We will provide pads, tampons, menstrual cups, and underwear for vulnerable populations, including Asylum Seekers; offer educational resources, film screenings, and workshops; and support period positive policy and coalition building efforts. With the 2050 grant, we could increase the number of products we provide to our partners from 100,000 to 200,000 products and increase our own menstrual hygiene kit distribution from 2,500 to 8,000. Long term success for this grant would mean the eradication of menstrual stigma and period poverty for every Los Angeles resident. No student will miss school, no employee will suffer discrimination, and no person will have to choose between purchasing food or menstrual products on account of a natural biological cycle.

Although our organization has been providing products to vulnerable populations in developing countries since our inception, this grant would enable us to bring our sizeable network home to pilot a distribution program and establish "LAccess to Pads," a local hub for menstrual health (MH) resources. We would monitor and evaluate our LA Hub in the same way as our US programs, by requiring each of our partners to provide data on the number of products purchased and distributed, and the number of persons served. Additionally, we calculate the number of kits that we pack and distribute ourselves. Since we do not have the resources we can only collect data on broad outcomes. Your grant will enable us to back our qualitative data with quantitative analysis.This year, product donations requests have tripled. We anticipate expanding our program network from 26 to 33 US states. Since 2020, we have helped distribute over 563,000 products and served over 41,000 individuals.