The Bay Area Women's Health Advocacy Council (BAWHAC) is a coalition of women from various health organizations and institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area who have come together to make changes and advocate for underserved women in the area of women's health and access to quality care.
BAWHAC was formed in March 2007 as a result of a grant the Latina Breast Cancer Agency (LBCA), a 501 c-3 non-profit organization based in San Francisco received from the California Endowment.
LBCA provides quality breast cancer education in Spanish and through its Mujeres Cuidando Mujeres/Women Caring for Women program provides assistance to its Latina community to acquire free breast cancer screening services through California's Every Women Counts Cancer Detection Program. These direct services are provided through established partnerships the Agency has formed with local hospitals and clinics.
One of the Agency's objectives through the California Endowment grant was to form a regional collaborative of breast and cervical cancer agency advocates whose efforts would be to prioritize increasing access to free breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services for underserved women in the Bay Area and determine appropriate mechanisms for increasing access to screening services in the region. Included in the region are; San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa and Sonoma Counties.
California's Every Women Counts Cancer Detection Program (EWC) receives its funds from the state and federal government including Prop 99 (Tobacco Tax) funds. The program covers the cost of breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment for low income, uninsured women living in California.
It is our hope as a collaborative to be one voice and to bridge with the community by opening doors to all women, promoting cancer awareness, prevention and early detection, and assisting the underserved populations to access the health care system in an effort to end disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, at risk, uninsured and medically underserved women.
If you are interested in participating in BAWHAC, please email:
BAWHAC@yahoo.com
