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.
Get REal
ABOUT TEEN PREGNANCY
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
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.
Pregnant?
Scared?
Answers.
Help.
Hope.
Because you
should know all
your options.
217-223-8200 - Quincy, IL
10
| Illinois Spring/Summer 2013 | abusemagazine.org
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.”
It only takes
one time
Dr. Martin Srajek, PhD
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
328 North Neil Street - Ste.#B
217-352-4060 • 217-637-2138
“We proudly
support preventative
education for our
youth.”
www.infant-parent.com
Source: http://www.thenationalcampaign.org