Philly has a new jawn — a Health Jawn.

That’s what they’re calling a vending machine that distributes condoms and other reproductive health products for free at the Community College of Philadelphia.

Kelly Lake is the manager of the CCP’s Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. Since the Health Jawn launched last month, she has noticed how frequently students use the machine.

“We’ve had to keep restocking it at least once a week,” she said, “so I’m blown away and so happy that it’s being used and really used in a way that it was designed to be used. I just think it’s so important the work that we do is serving all students, but really helping to eliminate barriers.”

The Health Jawn is just one piece of a partnership between the city’s Department of Public Health, through its Take Control Philly program, and CCP that was the subject of an on-campus event Thursday. The goal is to distribute 1.2 million condoms across the city of Philadelphia. 

Charles Gregory Postell, communications coordinator at the DPH, said the goal is a 20% increase from the previous year. Some of the supply will go to the CCP’s Health Jawn. The machine will also distribute free COVID tests.

Take Control Philly’s mission is to provide 13- to 19-year-olds with protection and sex education. This is important because Philly teens experience higher STI rates than teens in other parts of the country. While many of its student body are in their 20s, Postell believes working with CCP will eventually impact sexually active people under 18.

“The goal is not only just to give out condoms, but to protect as many people as we can,” said Postell. “And so, you might not use condoms yourself — because we get a lot of people (saying), ‘I’m abstinent,’ but you have friends, cousins, brothers, sisters, whatever. Just get them to them also. And so that’s the thing. How many people can we touch, protect and save?”

One of the issues the partnership between CCP and Take Control Philly addresses is the cost-based barrier to safe sex.

“Safe sex is important, and there shouldn’t be that financial barrier to being able to have safe sex,” said Lake, the manager of the CCP resource center. “So us being able to eliminate that financial barrier is huge. [Students] can come and they can get however many they need, whatever they need, without having to go to CVS or another store and spending money to do so.”

Take Control Philly and the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center set up tables in the cafeteria near the Health Jawn to inform students about the partnership. Madelin Myers and Allison Moore sat at the Resource Center table and talked to students about the center’s services and the collaboration between the college and Take Control Philly. 

Although there weren’t too many discussions about condoms, Myers and Moore were happy to see students walk away with information on Take Control Philly, as well as COVID tests and posters highlighting civil rights.

“At the Gender Sexuality Resource Center, we just want to make condoms more accessible,” Myers said. “That’s why this is such an amazing partnership with Take Control Philly, and we’re really excited to just be able to make sexual health more accessible to all the students at CCP.”

Moore added that she’s happy to “break down stigmatization surrounding condom use and [make] it a more comfortable topic to talk about.”

Take Control Philly continues to use other distribution methods, such as online orders, community outreach events and having public and private organizations serve as pick-up centers. According to Assistant Program Manager Tahira Greene, the effort to promote sexual health and confidence among youth “takes a village.”

 “Together, we are creating a healthier Philly that can engage safely and confidently in sexual activities,” Greene said. “A Philly that embraces this is a Philly that will thrive in every way.”

To learn more about the project and view a full list of supporters, visit www.everyvoice-everyvote.org. Editorial content is created independently of the project’s donors.

Adblock test (Why?)