The Bay Area Women's Health Advocacy Council (BAWHAC)
is a coalition of community partners from various health organizations
and institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area whose services and
advocacy efforts focus on women's health with an emphasis on women of
color.
As an advocacy
coalition BAWHAC brings together like minded individuals including
volunteers to work together with other community and advocacy groups
throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and California to advocate for
health care reform and access to quality care without barriers. We
advocate for those whose voices are seldom heard, the poor, medically
underserved, immigrant, elderly and undocumented. As a coalition we work
closely with our partners to support legislation that has a major
impact on access to programs and services including affordable and safe
prescription drugs.
BAWHAC is a project of
the Latina Breast Cancer Agency (LBCA) and was formed in March of 2007
through a grant secured 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.
BAWHAC
mission is to effectively advocate through a network of community
partners for access to quality health care for all women with the goal
of reducing health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities, at
risk, uninsured, underinsured and medically underserved women.
It
is our hope as a collaborative to be one voice and to bridge with the
community by opening doors to all women, promoting health education,
prevention and early detection, access and advocacy; and helping them to
navigate the health care system to acquire quality care and services
with dignity and without barriers.
BAWHAC meets on the last Friday of every other month. If you are interested in participating or would like to know more about the collaborative - please email:
For more information about BAWHAC, please click: www.bawhac.org