Country of Residence
United States
Age
16
Project title
Period@Modesto Supplies
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Period@Modesto is a local chapter focused on reducing period stigma and period poverty, and we need money to expand our impact by buying period products, printing educational posters, buying period@modesto stickers for our menstrual care kits, or buying bags and supplies for period packing partie.s
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.instagram.com/period.modesto/
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
Towards the end of my freshman year I had a lot of negative mood swings. Growing up in a household where periods weren’t really discussed openly, it took me a while to realize that all of my mood swings were consistently happening before my period. I was shocked I had not been taught this information or that no one else arround me seemed to be talking about it - or just periods in general - at all. That’s when I really started researching a lot about how the menstrual cycle affects your energy and mood. Starting with reading the book period power by Masie Hill. This introduced me to the topic of period poverty. I was horrified and completely shocked to find that 1 in 4 are in period poverty. When my parents discovered period.org’s website and I learned about their community chapters, I thought it would be the perfect way to help end period poverty while making sure that other young menstruators did not go through a lack of education like I did.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
The problems we are trying to solve are period poverty and period stigma. As a young woman living in a small town, there isn't enough education and help surrounding menstrual cycles. Girls on tv shows are often shamed for bleeding through their pants, and schools in my area never delve into menstrual cycles, believing it is something too shameful to be taught to little kids. Especially in the more underdeveloped parts of town around our downtown, I've been noticing and hearing about problems with accessing period products. My chapter and I want to ensure that every woman receives help from their community on their period and let them know that despite what society has wrongfully led them believe, they should never be ashamed of their natural cycles.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
My chapter and I are solving period poverty and period stigma by collecting and purchasing menstrual products such as tampons, menstrual cups, pads, underwear, heating pads, and liners. We gather these supplies into bags with a menstrual care card and distribute them to local women through nonprofits and partners such as West Modesto and Sierra Vista. We are also helping with period stigma by working on distributing educational posters across Enochs' campus and working on placing posters across all MCS bathrooms. We have also created educational videos that we're working on being showed across MCS classrooms. Furthermore, we have educational posts every Monday on our Instagram called Menstrual Mondays.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
So far, we have created and distributed a total of 229 menstrual kits that have enough supplies to support a woman's full period. We also worked with members in an event called Period Action Day to pack 1690 products into menstrual kits through our Period Packing Party. We have also succesfully outreached to health teachers and gotten 2 of them to agree to show our menstrual videos to their students. We have also outreached to other partners such as Kingdom Coffee to organize an upcoming Sips event where we work on cycle syncing diets and connecting that to drinks such as matcha for extra fiber on certain period days.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Our project is different because period poverty and stigma isn't talk about enough in our society, especially my small community, because of negative stigma. We're innovative because we aren't afraid to confront norms and opnions. We work a lot with outreach and collaboration to ensure that we impact both younger and older generations. For example, my previously mentioned Sips event is collaborating with an older run club that will bring in older women along with our younger members from school.
How many people are on your team?
17
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
We have a central leadership team with a president, vice president, secretary, social media manager, and treasurer. We have monthly meetings and a group chat that we constantly use to keep good communication about every event. Beneath that, we have a media committee that we're currently hosting applications for, to eager interest. For members, we have a discord group chat that we use to consistently update them.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
We're working on spreading all throughout MCS. We are communicating with health teachers, the MCS lead nurse, Sierra Vista, West Modesto, and local businesses to expand our impact. We want to grow our project by having more community events rather than just school events. The aforementioned Sips events is our first step in achieving that goal since that will bring in people from all different walks of life. This will also be done through more partnerships with nonprofits such as the Health Fair with West Modesto Collaborative. We also want to get more members, especially underclassmen, so that they can continue to love this chapter once we graduate.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
We've engaged 185 followers on our instagram and already have 17 officially signed up members even though we only just put out the application. We grow through consistent instagram posts such as our weekly Menstrual Monday posts. We also grow a lot through in-person events such as the previously mentioned Period Day Packing Party in which they actively helped us pack menstrual kits. We also hosted a HOSA interclub period products drive in which our members gathered over a thousand period products for us. This engagement comes a lot from our organization and structure since we have group chats and consistent instagram posts.
