Newsmakers: Annex Teen Clinic in Robbinsdale Celebrates 50 Years
The Annex Teen Clinic is a locally grown organization started by faith communities with a purpose of helping young people to be smart about sex.
“We provide accessible clinical services that are consistent with the state’s minors’ consent law,” said Brian Russ, executive director.”It’s pregnancy-related, reproductive health-related, and sexually transmitted infection-related.”
The clinic serves people up to the age of 26. The Annex provides a full range of low or no cost sexual health services including clinical services, referrals, and follow-up for young people. They also provide education for young people, parents/caregivers and youth-serving professionals on a variety of topics including communication and consent, gender, sexual orientation and sexual health. All services are fact-based, non-judgmental, are inclusive.
The Annex Teen Clinic also does a large amount of education around sexual health in schools and faith communities.
Executive Director Brian Russ spoke with Newsmakers about the Annex Teen Clinic’s 50 year anniversary.
Russ has been with the organization for 29 years and has seen significant changes.
“We focus less on what we do than how we do it and we focus a lot of time and energy making sure we are doing our work as effectively as possible,” said Russ. “We provide a lot more training for our staff around using techniques around young people, helping them be the driver of that health care experience. It’s listening really well and making sure young people are identifying what they need from us.”
Russ says he’s seen the public change perceptions toward the clinic as well.
“We have a generation of parents now who are very supportive of the work that we do. We want to make sure their young people have access to this information,” said Russ. “There’s a number of things that we’ve had to grapple with, to make sure our services are accessible to all and high quality.”
Russ encourages the public to reach out and learn more about the Annex Teen Clinic and follow them on social media.
See also: Report: Teen Pregnancy Down in Hennepin County
