For more than four years, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has worked to raise awareness about the high rates of teen pregnancy among youth in foster care through research, technical assistance to organizations and individuals that are interested in taking action, and partnerships with organizations that focus on child welfare. The goal of these efforts is to improve child and family well-being by reducing teen pregnancy among teens in and aging out of foster care.
With support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and in collaboration with Healthy Teen Network, The National Campaign is working to increase action by states and other organizations to reduce teen pregnancy among youth in and aging out of foster care As a first step, program leaders and practitioners in the fields of teen pregnancy prevention and child welfare will be convened at an interactive roundtable in April 2009. Eight states—Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Virginia—were invited to participate, given their work in this area. Interagency teams from each state will attend the roundtable to: (1) learn from one another about innovative strategies to reduce teen pregnancy among youth in foster care and (2) develop an action plan to advance this work in their states.
After the roundtable, The National Campaign will continue to provide ongoing support and technical assistance to all states to ensure that they are working towards the successful completion of their action steps. This technical assistance will include: (1) quarterly conference calls for all states to highlight successes, share strategies, and update the group on progress made; and (2) one-on-one interactions with Campaign staff by phone and e-mail upon request. In addition, The National Campaign will identify two states prepared to move forward quickly after the roundtable to begin implementing their action plans and would benefit from a more intense level of technical assistance. Specifically, we will focus on helping these states build support and raise awareness among policymakers, opinion leaders, and those in the state who are positioned to influence systems change or fund work that focuses on teen pregnancy prevention among foster care populations.
In addition to encouraging new action in the eight states, The National Campaign will produce and disseminate a video and accompanying materials. The video will feature former youth in foster care, teen pregnancy prevention and child welfare professionals discussing some of the promising prevention work being done and why it is important to continue addressing teen pregnancy among youth in foster care. These resources will help educate foster youth, parents, and staff about the effects of teen pregnancy on the health, education, and social and economic well-being of youth and families. In addition, we will increase action nationwide by raising awareness of teen pregnancy among youth in foster care through a national conference call and by developing and strengthening partnerships with national child welfare organizations.