7/16/2009
For Immediate Release
July 16, 2009
Washington, DC - Planned Parenthood
Federation of America (PPFA), the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute
(CCAI), The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the
National Foster Care Coalition (NFCC)today announced the formation of a new working
group on teen pregnancy and foster care. The group will provide recommendations to the Obama Administration and
Congress on common sense solutions to help reduce the disproportionately high
teen pregnancy rate among youth in and aging out of foster care.
The announcement was made at a
Congressional Roundtable Discussion moderated by Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA).
She was joined by Congressmen Michael Castle (R-DE), Jim Cooper (D-TN), Joseph
Crowley (D-NY), and Danny Davis (D-IL).
Other panelists included: teens from
PPFA’s peer educator program; CCAI’s congressional foster interns; Susan H.
Badeau, a foster/adoptive parent and official with Casey Family Programs; Amy
Dworsky, senior researcher at University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall; Shannon
Heintz, PPFA community healthy educator and child welfare advocate; and Rachel
Winston, social work specialist with the Richmond City (VA) Department of Social
Services.
The panel cited firsthand accounts of
the limited information and inconsistent services available to foster teens on
how to prevent teen pregnancy, the unique challenges facing youth in foster care
and those transitioning from care, and the need for more education and supports
for foster parents and child welfare staff to help address these issues. They
also highlighted innovative approaches to meeting these needs and possible
policy and program solutions.
Cecile
Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America
, one of the nation’s leading providers of preventive
reproductive health care and information to millions of men, women and teens a
year said, “We are so grateful to Senator Landrieu for her leadership and her
work to raise awareness about the need for increased sexual health education in
the foster care system. Together, we will work to strengthen foster care in this
country and ensure common sense policies are in place to reduce teen pregnancy
and give youth the information they need to leave healthy, productive
lives.”
While the foster care system in the
United States serves as an indispensible safety net for thousands of vulnerable
youth who have lacked consistent family support or who have experienced abuse
and neglect, young people in care and transitioning out of care face a number of
challenges that put them at high risk for early pregnancy and parenting. This includes a lack of stable relationships
and inconsistent access to comprehensive reproductive health care and
information, especially among those transitioning out of foster care.
Miranda
Sheffield, of the CCAI Foster Youth Intern (FYI) Program
said “I was taught the ins and outs of how to protect
by body and avoid contracting disease but foster care did not teach me how to be
confident with my sexuality and grow a positive self-image. That’s an important
part of dealing directly with sexuality. So we can be prepared to make critical
decisions in the right moments in our lives.”
Sponsored by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, the
Foster Youth Internship program provides talented young college students who
have spent their formative years in foster care an opportunity to intern with a
Member of Congress.
Alixis Rosado, of CCAI Foster Youth Intern
(FYI) Program, a program Sponsored by the Congressional Coalition on
Adoption Institute whichprovides
talented young college students who have spent their formative years in foster
care an opportunity to intern with a Member of Congress said, “If it was up to
the system to teach me about sex or parenting, and the various types of risk
that come along with both of those, I’d have no knowledge what so ever on the
topic. Any advice that I had the privilege of receiving came from older friends,
and very few stable adults in my life. It is an area of sensitivity, and a lot
of times the worker as well as the youth, are not ready or willing to put
themselves in such an awkward position. My response to that is an awkward
conversation is a small hurdle compared to the lives you could change by having
those type of engagements with your youth. “
A survey of Midwest states conducted by Chapin Hall found that by age
19, nearly one half of young women in foster care have been pregnant. Fully 17 percent of girls in foster care gave
birth as a teen, more than double the proportion (8 percent) of their peers
outside the foster care system, according to the Casey National Foster Care
Alumni Study.
Kathi M.
Crowe, Executive Director of the National Foster Care Coalition
, a national non-profit partnership of organizations,
foundations and individuals dedicated to improving the lives of children
involved in the foster care system, reports, "Many of the young people in and
from foster care that the National Foster Care Coalition has spoken to about
early parenting are desperately trying to create family. The more we can do to
provide youth with permanent loving families and support for education and
career development, the more they will aspire towards those goals."
Once foster youth turn 18 they are
often released from the system without vital health care knowledge and services
that would help them delay pregnancy and prevent STIs. Given these bleak
outcomes, PPFA, CCAI, the National Campaign and NFCC have formed a working group
to develop recommendations and raise awareness of the alarming incidence of teen
pregnancy among youth in and transitioning out of foster care – both through
expanding innovative strategies that currently exist and developing new policy
and program initiatives.
The National
Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
worked with Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network in
Chicago to
conduct focus groups with youth in foster care and with foster parents. One clear theme that emerged from the focus
group sessions is that the information youth in foster care receive about both
how and why to avoid early pregnancy is often too little, too late. Some
youth mentioned they were already
sexually active before they received any information about pregnancy
prevention. One young woman put
it this way: “When I was first in foster care, I wanted to have a baby, but I
didn’t. I saw all these children living
in poverty and decided…I wanted to wait until I could take care of my child and
give it everything that it needed.”
Y
outh in foster care also
report they want to have more open, honest conversations about sex and
relationships with their foster parents. One teen mother said: “Talk to the
foster teens—really talk, in conversation. No ‘don’t do this or that.’ ” At the same time, many foster parents say they
need additional tools and training to discuss these issues. In the words of one foster father, “It
can’t be a conversation, like ‘Yeah, I can just check that off the list. I had
the sex education conversation. It is
almost like an ongoing thing…”
Jamal
Campbell
, a teen involved in Planned Parenthood
Pasadena and San GabrielValley’s Education Outreach program and a teen
in foster care said, “Being raised by different families I was always around a
lot of diverse beliefs and values. In
some homes the parents were open to talk about sexuality, relationships, and
pregnancy where as in other homes they weren’t as open to talking about anything
related to the topic. Through my work as
an educator, I have the opportunity to provide comprehensive health and wellness
education to equip foster parents with medically accurate and culturally
appropriate information needed to help teens.”
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