INVOLVING YOUTH IN TEEN PREGNANCY PREVENTION
When it comes to talking about preventing teen pregnancy, few voices are as powerful or authentic as those of teens themselves. Any effort to reduce teen pregnancy can benefit from their unique insights. Purposefully involving a diverse group of teens from local organizations, schools, after-school programs, and faith communities helps create stronger, more effective programs and offers invaluable leadership opportunities for participating teens.
Here are some ideas for involving youth in teen pregnancy prevention efforts and examples of how particular programs are benefitting from youth participation.
Take teen involvement seriously.
Respect the teens you involve and hire staff who are eager and willing to work with teens to sustain their engagement.
SEX, ETC., a newsletter written for and by teens about health and sexuality, was launched in 1994 as a project of the Network for Family Life Education at Rutgers University( 908 / 445-7929). Since its inception, six different teen editorial boards have written stories that have reached over 1.5 million teens across the country.
Involve teens early in the planning of a program’ s goals and activities.
Incorporate teen voices into decision-making and take teens’ opinions seriously.
The Central New York Council on Adolescent Pregnancy( 315 / 471-0564) recruited
GET REAL
ABOUT TEEN PREGNANCY
young people from local youth groups to form a teen committee that was instrumental in developing the goals and agenda for the community’ s events to commemorate Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month.
Let teens be your ambassadors to understanding youth culture. Use their input when developing messages, designing marketing campaigns, and writing any printed materials targeting teens.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy’ s Youth Leadership Team( YLT) developed two successful publications: Thinking About the Right-Now, which offers practical advice for teens by teens, and a companion brochure, Talking Back: Ten Things Teens Want Parents to Know About Teen Pregnancy. The two pamphlets have appeared in Teen People magazine( circ. 8.4 million) and in Ann Landers’ syndicated column( circ. 90 million), and have been widely distributed to parents, teens, and organizations nationwide. Most recently, the YLT helped create the Campaign’ s Voices Carry: Teens Speak Out on Sex and Teen Pregnancy, which offers the unvarnished opinions of teens on everything from what“ sex” really means to why being a teen virgin is“ cool.”
PREGNANT & NEED HELP?
“ We care & we get involved.”
Source: www. thenationalcampaign. org
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