Currently, all five Anderson County public school districts, along with the Anderson County Alternative School and New Foundations Home for Children, are implementing the same teen pregnancy prevention education curriculum in the middle schools. Districts 2 and 3, the Alternative School and New Foundations also offer programs in the high school, and District 1 will offer a high school program next year as well. And, the United Way of Anderson County serves as the local coordinating agency for the teen pregnancy prevention program supporting these services as well as providing parent/child communication resources like Let’s Talk events. Let’s Talk is an opportunity for “trusted adults” of teens or pre-teens to get together and discuss how to have open, honest and informative conversations with young people about love and relationships. Let’s Talk includes a discussion of questions children/ teens may ask...a review of answer options to these difficult questions…“what would you do” situations... and more. These events can be held for small groups in the privacy of one’s home or in large settings for parents, teachers or anyone who works with youth. A trained United Way staff member can serve as a facilitator for your Let’s Talk event or you can host on your own with a prepared kit. By taking a community-wide approach to the issue of teen pregnancy prevention, Anderson County is helping to ensure the teen birth rate continues to decrease in our community. Driving this number down means more teens stay in school and graduate leading to better jobs and a brighter future. For more information on The Point @ Anderson, call 855-472-3432 or visit www.NotRightNowSC.org. For information on other teen pregnancy prevention programs, call the United Way of Anderson County at 864-226-3438 or visit www.unitedwayofanderson.org. n
Wykenia Hemingway, Prevenative Health Administrative Supervisor and Lummie Young III, program manager and site supervisor at the Anderson County Health Department. andersonmagazine.com
Building a foundation for teen pregnancy prevention
New Foundations Home for Children was accepted into a 5-year federal grant in 2015 which provided funding for the implementation of evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention curriculum to the students who were living at the group home. Since that time, trained facilitators have provided programming to 92 male and female students. In 2017, New Foundations, along with 83 other federally funded teen pregnancy prevention programs across the U.S. (including the programs provided in all five Anderson County public school districts), learned that the grant funding was being terminated by the Office of Adolescent Health in June of 2018 – which would be at the end of three years, and not five years as the original grant stated. “We were shocked and disappointed,” said Katrina Upton, who is a registered nurse, clinical therapist and also teaches the teen pregnancy prevention program at New Foundations. “These kids desperately need this program. I have seen eyes opened and changes in attitude during classes I’ve taught.” The grant ensured there were funds to pay the facilitators, pay for the training, course materials and more. Upton said New Foundations has been working hard to implement sustainability strategies so that the program can continue even with the loss of federal funding, but that the change in the middle of the grant cycle has been difficult. “We had looked toward the future and long-term plans, but losing two years of time is hard to make up so quickly,” she said. However, New Foundations recently received good news and was a recipient of a grant from the Lipscomb Family Foundation. “While it won’t fully fund the 2018-19 school year, it is definitely encouraging to know that others see the value in this work and in our young people,” said Upton.
Travis Dove, Pam Belluck (New York Times), Beth DeHart (South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy), Jo McClain and Katrina Upton (New Foundations) in August of 2017 when the New York Times visited to write a story on Anderson County’s teen pregnancy prevention efforts. 37
May/June 2018