Reproductive Health Equity
Building Support for Women’s Health & Reproductive Justice in West Virginia
WVAHC is proud to announce the launch of Echoes of Resilience: Mountain Voices on Health and Justice, a new statewide initiative that uses storytelling, trusted messenger engagement, and cultural traditions to build understanding and support for reproductive justice and Medicaid across the Mountain State.
Grounded in deep community relationships, Echoes of Resilience uplifts lived experiences, strengthens local leadership, and weaves together cultural narratives that connect reproductive freedom to broader health justice.
About Echoes of Resilience:
At the heart of the project are 5 Community Health Stewards, who will serve as trusted messengers in strategically chosen regions of West Virginia.
Stewards will collect and share first-person stories about reproductive health, justice, and Medicaid’s role in community well-being — stories that reveal both the challenges and the strength of West Virginians navigating today’s health care system.
Paid Opportunity. Click the link below to learn more.
Become a 2026 Health Care Seward!
We’re seeking applicants who are connected to their communities, curious, and passionate about making a difference. You don’t need professional experience or policy expertise—just a genuine interest in listening to others, sharing stories, and helping lift up the voices of West Virginians.
Ideal applicants are reliable, comfortable building trust, and open to learning about reproductive health, Medicaid, and health justice. Most importantly, we’re looking for people who care deeply about their communities and want to help create a better future for West Virginia.
Paid Opportunity.
Applications due: Applications for the 2026 Health Care Steward Cohort have closed. Follow us on social media and check back here for announcements about next year!
Your story doesn’t need to be dramatic—just your lived experience.
If you’ve used health care in West Virginia, your experience can help drive change. All you need is a phone, tablet, or computer with video and audio, and a quiet place to talk.
We need courageous West Virginians to share their experiences with sexual and reproductive health care in the Mountain State. This includes accessing reproductive health care.
Your story matters—whether it’s about long travel times to clinics, difficulty finding providers, insurance challenges, discrimination or stigma, or experiences that made a difference in your health.
Selected storytellers will have the chance to take part in a statewide action campaign to amplify these voices and will receive $100 for their participation.
Meet our Partner: Kaylen Barker
Kaylen Barker began organizing in West Virginia during her time at West Virginia State University, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in history and a master of public administration with a focus in public policy.
Barker has extensive experience working directly with impacted communities and building coalitions to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, particularly in restrictive environments. Barker has been working in the reproductive justice space since 2021 but has been building lasting relationships with legislators and civic leaders in West Virginia since 2016. During her tenure at both the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.
She worked closely with community leaders, legislators, grassroots organizations, and legal partners at both the state and national levels to protect and expand reproductive freedom and health justice. In multiple states across the country between 2022 and 2025, Barker played a key role in defeating numerous harmful anti-reproductive justice and anti-2SLGBTQIA+ bills and mitigating the impact of legislation that did pass through strategic amendments, as well as working with leaders to draft proactive reproductive and maternal health legislation focusing on policies that would improve maternal and infant health. Through her coalition-based approach and her commitment to uplifting the voices of impacted people, she has leveraged relationships across the political spectrum alongside grassroots mobilization, public education campaigns, and strategic communications to support and empower vulnerable communities during the fall of Roe v. Wade and subsequent abortion restrictions.