Working to prevent teen pregnancy

Having a family can be a wonderful thing, but when teens become pregnant lives are changed before they really have a chance to begin. Education often gets sidetracked as young mothers struggle to care for babies while they are in many ways still children themselves.

And although teen pregnancy rates are on the decline both nationally and here in Oklahoma, the Sooner State ranks still ranks second in the nation and some ZIP Codes in Tulsa are at triple the national average. A Tulsa non-profit organization is working hard to change this, and is making a special effort to reach out to the Hispanic community.

The Tulsa Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (The Campaign) was formed in 2013, and since that time has seen teen birth rates decrease by 21% across all age groups and by 29% among girls 15-17 years old.

This has been accomplished in part through a coordinated campaign to provide parents and teachers with access to resources to educate girls about their bodies over the course of their development in ways that are easy to understand and that are age appropriate.

Heather Duvall, The Campaign’s Director of Education, says this begins at home.

“We know that parents are the number one educators, whether that’s grandparents or other caregivers, so we want to make sure that parents feel comfortable and confident to be that first teacher for their kids,” Duvall told La Semana. “We do coordinate sex education with Tulsa Public Schools, but we know that parents play a critical role as well.”

Recognizing that, in Tulsa’s Hispanic community, English is often not the language spoken at home, The Campaign stepped up to bridge the gap.

“We’re making sure that we are creating resources in Spanish so that Spanish speaking parents are able to talk to their kids as well,” Duvall said, crediting The Campaign’s Marcia Bruno-Todd for her hard work on this important project.

Bruno-Todd said that in addition to providing culturally sensitive Spanish language books and materials, The Campaign works with “teen-friendly clinics” at local health agencies such as Tulsa Health Department, Community Health Connection, and Morton Comprehensive Health Services to make sure girls have access to health care and hygiene resources.

“A supportive environment to help the teen is very important,” Bruno-Todd said.

The Campaign operates a bilingual lending library for Tulsa families featuring books and other materials helpful to talking to girls from age three or four up through their teen years.

“It’s about building up a foundation of communication and trust through age appropriate conversations between children and parents,” Duvall said, “so when those harder questions come, they come to you.”

The Campaign works with its partner organizations by conducting training programs and workshops on topics such as “Contraception,” “Positive Youth Development,” and “Sex Ed for Parents,” and many others.

The Campaign’s CEO, Sharla Owens, noted that reducing teen pregnancy is “a community wide effort.”

“This is something that crosses all socio-economic layers in the community, so we really do look to the community to help us with this conversation,” Owens said. “We’re here as a resource, so if any schools, businesses or other organizations would like for us to come and speak to them we are certainly available for that.”

For more information in Spanish, visit www.tulsacampaign.org/Español. (La Semana)