Our Mission & Vision
Advocates for Reproductive Education (WeARE) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, organized in 2015 around a commitment to promote and provide comprehensive reproductive education and healthcare services for youth, young adults, and the underserved in Brainerd, MN and the surrounding community.
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Our vision is that everyone in the Brainerd Lakes Area have access to accurate and evidence-based reproductive education and healthcare. Through community collaboration, led by compassionate healthcare professionals, the underserved living in the Brainerd Lakes Area are empowered to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing.
Board of Directors
WeARE 2024 Board of Directors
From left to right: Govinda Budrow, Anne Nelson-Fisher (Treasurer), Jennifer Perez Krueger (Chair), Chris Fastner, Erin Swanson, Kalsey Courneya (Secretary), Devon Charlier (Executive Director), Linda Holliday (Vice Chair), Dawn Espe, Paul Jacobsen
Our Values
These are the values that guide WeARE’s mission and vision.
Excellence
We provide inclusive, relevant, evidence-based information and services by highly qualified staff and volunteers. We are committed to constantly learning and evolving as an organization to be able to provide the highest quality and most inclusive care for our community as possible.
Empowerment
We listen to the diverse voices of those we serve, encourage their input, and honor personal reproductive health care decisions so that all may be heard and seen.
Integrity
We conduct our business in an honest, transparent, and ethical fashion while upholding the privacy, safety and diversity of every individual served. We are accountable to our community and each other for the quality of our work.
Community
Through collaboration, we create comprehensive community-wide support for inclusive reproductive healthcare and education. We value and respect the diversity of our region and all of its people. We understand the uniqueness of each individual and strive to provide care and education that is gender-affirming, culturally sensitive, and trauma informed.
How it Began
Founders Julie Ingleman, Becky Twamley, and Sue Hadland
At WeARE, we believe that all people deserve medically accurate healthcare and the support needed to make healthy decisions. WeARE works to decrease barriers to accurate sexual health information and services by educating youth and young adults to advocate for equity and their own responsible and healthy lives. WeARE-The Clinic, our outreach sites, and our Let’sTalk Education programming are working, in collaboration with youth and community partners, to increase access to sexual health information and services for all those living in the Brainerd Lakes Area, focusing on the youth, young adults, and the underserved in our community.
2015
A table somewhere....(coffee shop, home, The Shop)....4 women....a lot of conversation and brainstorming!
2017
We spent most of the year fundraising, searching for the perfect clinic spot and writing grants and clinic protocols. In October of 2017, we opened WeARE-The Clinic. Oh yeah...not without a lot of community help: cleaning, painting, donations of furniture and cash! We actually hosted our 1st annual STI testing day at CLC before we opened our clinic!
2019
WeARE met our budgeted patient visit goals! We continue a presence in the community with education programs and services provided at 3 locations: our main clinic WeARE-The Clinic and 2 outreach sites, WeARE@CLC and WeARE@MMWC (Mid MN Women's Center). We hosted Education Forums at CLC on Sex Trafficking including a local panel of experts and brought in Men as Peacemakers to work with CLC students as well as speak to the community.
2016
Once we decided on a name and a mission and vision, we hit the ground running. Our days were spent developing marketing materials, writing our 501c3, fundraising and bringing structure to the organization with articles of incorporation, by-laws and a board of directors.
2018
We continued to increase our patient base at WeARE-The Clinic, providing a walk-in clinic environment for free or affordable birth control, annual exams and STI testing and treatment. We conducted our 2nd annual free STI Testing Day at CLC and in the fall of 2018 opened WeARE@CLC- an outreach clinic on campus. Our commitment to the community continues with education programming on topics such as birth control, STIs, anatomy, consent and healthy relationships. We hosted our first community Education Forum on the Culture of Rape.
2020
Throughout the pandemic we persevered! Telehealth from the parking lot and drive up service for many forms of birth control got our clients through the worst of it. During this year of Covid-19, mask wearing and social distancing we had our record month for number of clients - 73. And our positive chlamydia rates increased to 14-20% for much of the year.
Why WeARE Needed
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The teen pregnancy rate for 18-19 year olds in Crow Wing County is 12th out of 87 counties at 33/1000 females. This compares to the MN state average of 19/1000 females.
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Crow Wing County is ranked 9th of 87 counties for the chlamydia rate of 15-19 year olds. Positive chlamydia rates in our clinic average about 11% and have been as high as 24%.​
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​WeARE is the only healthcare facility in the area to enroll clients in the free and confidential MN Family Planning Program (MFPP). Income eligible clients have access to free contraception, STI testing and treatment and reproductive healthcare services. Currently, 35% of our clients are enrolled in MFPP.
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In Crow Wing County more than 29% of adults live at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. (~$25,000/year)
WeARE Making a Difference.
In 2023, the clinic had 780 patient visits, with about 580 returning and 200 new patients, receiving essential services such as:
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long-acting reversible contraception (the most effective forms - IUDs, implants)
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emergency contraception (Plan B)
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all other forms of pregnancy prevention (birth control pills, patches, rings, etc.)
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sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing and treatment
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wellness exams
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risk reduction education
Our Team
Our dedicated team of staff and volunteers creates a welcoming, inclusive environment while providing medically accurate sexual healthcare and the support needed for making informed, healthy decisions.
Devon Charlier
Executive Director
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Sarah Fransen
RN / Clinic Manager
Dr. Kristin Elliot
Medical Doctor
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Carrie Chiodi
Office Manager
Chloe Baker
Community Education & Outreach Manager
Arlyce Shook
RN
Community Partners
We work with community organizations to bring reproductive education and healthcare to our community. If your organization is interested in partnering with WeARE to bring accurate and evidence-based reproductive education to our community, please contact us.
WeARE is a supporter and partner with the Brainerd Lakes Area Pride organization. WeARE and BLA Pride are here to support ALL members of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as the non-LGBTQIA+ community. Acceptance, awareness & advocacy are goals we strive to achieve through outreach, events, & activities together.
We partner with the Brainerd/Baxter Youth Center (The Shop) to provide monthly SxTalks to youth and young adults. Some examples of recent SxTalks include sexual health topics such as consent, sexually transmitted infections, and gender 101.
We partner with Port boys’ and girls' homes. We offer our Let’s Talk series on sexual health topics such as consent, contraception options, condoms, sexually transmitted diseases, and gender 101.
We partner with the Relationship Safety Alliance (RSA), previously the Mid-Minnesota Women’s Center (MMWC) in Brainerd, to staff a Registered Nurse weekly at the shelter who offers education and sexually transmitted infection testing. Residents also have access to WeARE-The Clinic for annual exams, birth control, and other appointments with a medical professional.