The Action Line!
Your Source for Teen Pregnancy Prevention News
August 2008- Vol 4, Issue 3
In This Issue
Resource Roundup
Science Matters!
Funding Alerts
Dates to Know
In the Media
Join Our Mailing List!
Greetings!
New LogoIt is truly an August occasion, dear reader.  This month we celebrate the wonder that is Immunization Awareness Month.  So, dear reader, make certain you're up to date on your shots and your adolescent pregnancy prevention news with a dose of the Action Line!
Resources, Information and Other Useful Things
  1. Health Risks and Disparities Experienced by Hispanic Youth This resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides an introduction to health disparities (including health risk behaviors among Hispanic youth) highlights factors that contribute to health disparities, and offers strategies to address health and educational disparities. For more information, click here
  2. 2008 List of Title IX Coordinators in State Education Agencies
    This guide from the Feminist Majority Foundation includes a listing of all state level Title IX Coordinators, the officials responsible for coordinating schools' efforts to implement Title IX, which is the law that protects pregnant and parenting students from discrimination. For more information, click here
  3. SCHIP and Adolescents: An Overview and Opportunities for States
    According to this brief, adolescents have distinct service utilization and developmental health care needs, which should be addressed in the design of each state's Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). To view this brief, click here. 
  4. Going to Work with a Criminal Record
    This report offers lessons for workforce organizations in helping men released from prison find jobs, such as how to build relationships with employers, parole officers, and child support agencies, and also includes résumé tips, interview scenarios, and other tools. To view the report, click here. 
  5. Building on Strength: Positive Youth Development in Juvenile Justice Programs
    A new report from Chapin Hall explores six juvenile justice programs that use positive youth-development principles to improve their intervention approaches and describes the factors that facilitate the adoption of such principles as well as implementation challenges. To view the report, click here. 
  6. City MATCH Toolkit for Policy Development released by the CDC
    In an effort to make all of our work evidence-based, CityMatCH believes that data provides the platform for policy development. Based on the work of Dr. Milton Kotelchuck and Dr. Julius Richmond (Richmond JB, Kotelchuck M, "Political Influences: Rethinking National Health Policy," In: McGuire CH, Foley RP, Gorr A, Richards RW and Associates, editors. Handbook of Health Professions Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers; 1983. p386-404) CityMatCH developed the Data Use Triangle, which promotes the translation of data into action. Public health practitioners, equipped with accurate baseline and outcome measures, are able to assess need and plan, monitor and evaluate programs. By effectively translating data and incorporating public health values such as cultural competence, social justice and prevention, they are able to build political and social will and influence policies at the departmental, city, county, state, and federal levels. For more information and to obtain the toolkit, click here.
  7. Using Incentives to Increase Participation in Out-Of-School Time Programs
    Research suggests that regular participation in out-of-school time programs can benefit children and youth in many ways.  Incentives such as food, prizes, and field trips may promote program attendance, a sense of belonging to a program, and increased academic achievement.  A new Child Trends brief, Using Incentives to Increase Participation in Out-of-School Time Programs, provides key strategies for implementing a successful incentive program.  You can check out the brief here.
Science Matters!
  1. Condom Use and Hip Hop Culture
    The authors of this study explored how young men's perceptions of and participation in hip hop culture-urban social and artistic expressions, such as clothing style, breakdancing, graffiti, and rap music-and how contextual factors of the hip hop scene may be associated with their condom use, condom-use self-efficacy, and sense of community. (Muñoz-Laboy, M.A. et al. (2008). Condom Use and Hip Hop Culture: The Case of Urban Young Men in New York City. American Journal of Public Health, 98(6), 1081-1085).
  2. Ecosocial and Psychosocial Correlates of STIs among Young Adults in the US
    The authors of this study concluded that, often present before sexual debut, contextual conditions such as housing and safety may enhance sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk by increasing sexual risk behaviors and likelihood of exposure to infection. (Buffardi, A.L. et al. (2008). Moving Upstream: Ecosocial and Psychosocial Correlates of Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Young Adults in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 98(6), 1128-1136). 
  3. Virginity Pledges May Help Postpone Intercourse Among Youth
    According to a new RAND Corporation study, making a virginity pledge appears to be an effective means of delaying sexual intercourse initiation among those inclined to pledge, without influencing other sexual behavior; pledging does not appear to affect sexual safety among pledgers who fail to remain abstinent. (Martino, S.C. et al. (2008). Virginity Pledges Among the Willing: Delays in First Intercourse and Consistency of Condom Use. Journal of Adolescent Health). 
  4. Adolescent Behavior Not Linked to HPV Risk in Young Females
    A study examining the association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and adolescent characteristics found sexual activity and other behaviors do not predict future HPV infection, and the authors concluded that "a risk factor-based approach to HPV catch-up vaccination is unlikely to be an effective implementation strategy. (Dempsey, A.F. et al. (2008). Behavior in Early Adolescence and Risk of Human Papillomavirus Infection as a Young Adult: Results From a Population-Based Study. Pediatrics, 122(1), 1-7). 
  5. Child Care Use by Low-Income Families: Variations Across States
    This research brief provides new estimates to show the variation across the 50 states in the use of non-parental child care, the types of child care used, and parents' experiences with child care problems that interfere with their work schedules. (Lippman, L. et al. (2008). Child Care Use by Low-Income Families: Variations Across States. Child Trends). 
  6. Breastfeeding-Related Maternity Practices at Hospitals and Birth Centers
    This report summarizes results of the national Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) Survey, highlighting the need for US hospitals and birth centers to implement changes in maternity practices that support breastfeeding. ((2008). Breastfeeding-Related Maternity Practices at Hospitals and Birth Centers - United States, 2007. CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report). 
  7. Teen Birth Rate Increased in 2006
    According to a report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a consortium of 22 federal agencies, the US teenage birth rate increased by 2.8 percent from 2005 to 2006, marking the first increase in the rate in 15 years. To view the report, click here.
  8. Predictors of Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Newly Homeless Youth
    The authors' findings indicate that interventions aimed at reducing sexual risk behaviors, and thereby reducing sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, among newly homeless youth need to help youth in finding housing associated with supervision and social support (family and institutional settings) as well as aim to reduce drug use. (Solorio, M.R. et al. (2008). Predictors of Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Newly Homeless Youth: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(4), 401-409). 
  9. Parents Learn at Work to Talk to Teens About Sex
    A new study found that a workplace training program, "Talking Parents, Healthy Teens" that involved eight weekly lunch-hour sessions with groups of about 15 people, improved parents' ability to communicate openly with their children about sex. (Schuster, M.A. et al. (2008). Evaluation of 'Talking Parents, Healthy Teens,' a New Worksite-Based Parenting Program to Promote Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sexual Health: Randomized Controlled Trial. British Medical Journal, 337, a308).
  10. Awareness, Knowledge, and Beliefs about HPV in a Racially Diverse Sample of Young Adults
    In the first study to assess awareness, knowledge, and beliefs about human papillomavirus (HPV) since the vaccine was approved, the authors found that awareness of HPV may be increasing, yet many misconceptions remain, and continued efforts are needed to promote further understanding of HPV infection, the HPV vaccine, and the importance of routine cervical screening. (Gerend, M.A. & Magloire, Z.F. (2008). Awareness, Knowledge, and Beliefs About Human Papillomavirus in a Racially Diverse Sample of Young Adults. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(3), 237-242). 
  11. Non-Coital Sexual Activities among Adolescents
    According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, adolescents do not tend to engage in oral sex rather than vaginal sex to maintain their technical virginity. (Duberstein Lindberg, L. et al. (2008). Non-Coital Sexual Activities among Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 42(7)).
Funding Alerts
  1. Youth Service America and Walt Disney Company Disney Minnie Grants
    The Youth Service America and Walt Disney Company are accepting applications for the Disney Minnie Grants program to support youth-led (ages 5-14) service projects focused on the environment, disaster relief, public health and awareness, community education, hunger, literacy, or any issue that youth identify as a community need.
    Deadline: August 30, 2007
    For more information, click here. 
  2. Ronald McDonald House Charities Children's Health and Wellbeing Grants
    The Ronald McDonald House Charities support organizations running programs that seek to directly improve the health and wellbeing of children, address a significant funding gap or critical opportunity, have long-term impact in terms of replication or reach, and produce measurable results.
    Deadline: Rolling (Letter of Inquiry)
    For more information, visit http://www.rmhc.org/grants/.
  3. Public Welfare Foundation Health Reform Grants
    The Public Welfare Foundation supports efforts to ensure fundamental rights and opportunities for people in need. The Health Reform Program seeks to expand effective consumer advocacy for health care, particularly on the state and local levels, and supports the belief that well-informed consumers and skilled advocates can play a major role in creating a health system to which all residents of the United States have access and which affords them cost-effective and affordable care of a high quality.
    Deadline: Rolling (Letters of Inquiry)
    For more information, click here. 
  4. Gannett Foundation
    The Gannett Foundation announces funds to support projects that take a creative approach to such fundamental issues as youth development, education and neighborhood improvement, economic development, assistance to disadvantaged people and cultural enrichment.
    Deadline: August 15, 2008
    For more information, visit http://www.gannettfoundation.org/.
  5. Open Meadows Foundation Women and Girls Project Grants
    The purpose of this program is to support small and start-up organizations designed and implemented by women and girls that promote building community power and racial, social, economic, and environmental justice.
    Deadline: August 15, 2008
    For more information, visit http://www.openmeadows.org/.
  6. Siemen's Caring Hands United Way $10,000 Grant
    The purpose of the Siemens Caring Hands United Way $10,000 Grant is to help fund a health or human services project focusing on children and/or adolescents (18 years and under).  One $10,000 grant will be awarded for a tangible project or capital expense (donation will not be a general fund contribution). The donation must be used to help fund a health or human service project benefiting children and/or adolescents (18 years and under), and cannot be used for general operating fund or research expenses. Must be a member agency of a United Way that is located within a 50-mile radius of Cary, NC. For the application, contact James at APPCNC. Deadline Sept 5, 2008.
  Important Dates to Know
  • August 21: The Guilford County Department of Public Health proudly announces our next Smart Girls Life Skills Curriculum Training! SMART GIRLS Life Skills Training Curriculum Part I is an eight to ten week teen pregnancy prevention program targeting girls ages 12 to 14.  Smart Girls Life Skills Training promotes healthy behaviors and ultimately aims to reduce the risk of teen pregnancy by teaching girls the importance of life skills such as cultivating self esteem and making healthy decisions.  For more information email Jean Workman!
  • September 2: TPPI RFA released
  • 2008 United States Conference on AIDS (USCA)
    Over 3,000 workers representing all fronts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, from case managers and physicians, to public health workers and advocates, to people living with AIDS, to policymakers, come together to build national support networks, exchange the latest information and learn cutting-edge tools to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
    Dates: September 18-21, 2008
    Location: Miami Beach, FL
    For more information, visit http://www.nmac.org/index/2008-usca.
  • October 9 - 2008 Hispanic Symposium held, "Teen Pregnancy Prevention for Hispanic Latino/Youth". This year's conference will take place at The Friday Center in Chapel Hill, NC.  Featuring the following speakers: Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, Associate Professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work, contributing author for The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy; Martica Bacallao  Assistant Professor at UNC Greensboro and Paul Smokowski Ph.D, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, UNC Chapel Hill;  Josh Hinson, Mental health and substance abuse practitioner with El Futuro in Carrboro and Siler City -and more Hispanic topics!
  • October 29 - November 1: Healthy Teen Network Conference in Albuquerque: Speaking Many Languages, Respecting Diversity, Believing in Equity.
  • November 12: APPCNC Grant Writing Training
  • December 12: TPPI Applications Due
  • May 19 - 21, 2009: APPCNC and NCDHHS present: Annual Conference 2009, Greensboro, NC! (NOTE: new dates!)
In the Media
  1. As always, APPCNC's Podcasts are available as a resource.  We're currently looking for programs to spotlight as success stories, so if you'd like to be interviewed, let us know.  New episodes are up every two weeks.  Visit here for more information.
  2. There's a great short article online at the Hartford Courant that bears reading: Dr. Sandra Scantling: No Perfect Way To Discuss Sex.
Last But Not Least
If you've got a hot tip, an upcoming event or news that you think others should hear, drop a line to the Action Line.  Until the next issue, keep up the good work!