Births to Teens
Mississippi County
Mississippi County Caring Communities
Core Result: Youth Ready to Enter Productive Adulthood
Benchmark: Births to teens, ages 15-19 (per 1,000)
February 2002
Objective
To decrease the teen pregnancy rate in Mississippi County from 131.4 occurrences per 1,000 in 1999, to 91 occurrences per 1,000 by 2004.
Strategies
Successes
The partnership has implemented several strategies to help reduce the teen pregnancy rate in Mississippi County. These strategies are offered comprehensively and target time periods when youth are more vulnerable due to lack of supervision. The CAAAP (Community Alliance Against Adolescent Pregnancy) Coalition partners with the community to help increase awareness surrounding teen pregnancy and to offer Sexual Awareness Training in the local school systems. Parent forums were implemented so parents would have the opportunity to observe what the youth are learning. This enables parents to actively participate in the children’s training.
Teen groups have also been implemented for area youth. This gives them the opportunity to address the problems and shortcomings faced by today’s teen. The panel discussion method allows the groups to be student driven.
The partnership has worked diligently for the last 6 months to educate community partners, parents and the ministerial alliance about the teen pregnancy rate in the county. The outreach has built a coalition of more than 14 partners and the approval of the local ministerial alliance boards, one school system and the community. The Community Site Coordinators developed the sexual awareness training for the schools that have been in operation for this fiscal year.
Challenges
The partnership is the liaison between the community coalition and the school system. It is time consuming to make sure that everything is completely in tact for the Sexual Awareness Training. To qualify as a speaker/presenter, CAAAP must approve all speakers and also the schools have their own regulations that must be met. Problems may also occur if parents don’t approve of the training components.
Observations/Actions
(unintended positive/negative consequences; course corrections)
While listening to the youth on the panel discussion board the partnership learned that several are under peer pressure and constantly subjected to alcohol and drugs. The partnership plans to incorporate and generate guest speakers and information about substance abuse into the teen groups.
Results
Progress
The partnership has been working on the teen pregnancy rate in Mississippi County for the last two years. In August of 2002 the partnership will have completed one year of teen pregnancy intervention methods with Sexual Awareness Training and the Teen Support Groups.
Program Performance Measures
The development of the CAAAP Coalition has brought 14 entities to the table partnering to help lower teen pregnancy. Through this coalition 7th and 8th grade girls addressing teen pregnancy issues have completed 83 Sexual Awareness Training surveys that help guide the next training. Results from surveys show that 10 understood Abstinence while the other 73 didn’t. All sexually active girls are from homes comprised of mother/step father, grandparents or single parent homes. A total of 28 adults and youth have participated in the Parent Forums addressing Teen Pregnancy in less than four months.
Funding/Return on Investment
The funding for the Teen Pregnancy Interventions and the CAAAP Coalition has been supported locally. There is no state or federal dollars that generate this program.
Leveraging $$ and resources
The program strategies are conducted by a collaborative effort from local agencies, churches, ministerial alliances, organizations, and the local school systems.
Cost Savings
The teen pregnancy interventions strategies save the state dollars. A teen mother generates a dollar amount from the state for the infant and the mother. These strategies dealing with teen pregnancy will help to lower that dollar amount.
Noteworthy The partnership and the CAAAP Coalition met with all local community organizations and agencies. The ministerial alliance, a key collaborator of the training, gave their support to allow the Sexual Awareness Training in the schools and also to participate as a speaker and presenter to the students and parents.
