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| TeenNow California (formerly CACSAP) Newsletter |
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Greetings!
It is the season of giving! When you give your time, energy, and money to something you show the world what you value. Give what you can, when you can....you make a difference! TeenNow California wishes you and yours a wonderful holiday season.
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Scholarship Fund Campaign 
Support Teen Parents with Scholarships! We're raising money to support our teen scholarship program! Every year, we give out scholarships to eight California teen parents and one California teen student leader to help them go on to secondary education-college or vocational school-after they graduate from high school. These scholarships are vital to help young people achieve their goals, and you can help! A small donation of $20 can contribute to the education of a teen in your area. Please help now. California youth need opportunities to succeed! Consider making your holiday donations to this cause. Donate
Fundraising Goal: $2,500
Campaign Dates: Dec. 1st, 2011 to Dec. 31st, 2011
 December 13: Sex Positive Webinar! "Sex Isn't 'Dirty': Being Sex Positive When Teaching Teens" "Sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - singer/songwriter Butch Hancock. If you see the inconsistency in this statement, this training is for you! Making your prevention messages sex-positive is critical to relating to youth and teaching about healthy, safe relationships. This workshop is designed to provide educators and others who interact with teens the tools necessary to discuss sex and sexuality from a positive perspective. Being sex positive incorporates the understanding that sex is a normal and healthy part of human development. Approaching sex education from this perspective can teach teens how to make healthy life-long choices. Date: Tuesday December 13, 2011 Time: 12pm-1pm Registration Fee: TeenNow California members: $10, Non-members: $25, TeenNow California Annual Membership Fee: $50 After registering you will be directed to a payment page. Once payment is received, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/262805350 January 19: What Every Adolescent Sexual Health Provider Should Know Webinar! "Providing Excellent Services: What Every Adolescent Sexual Health Provider Should Know" Whether you're new to field of sexual health education or are a manager of health educators, this workshop provides vital information for you! To provide the best services you need staff and management that understand youth development issues, know their material well, and are skilled at communicating and relating to young people. The Adolescent Sexual Health Workshop (ASHWG) has created a set of criteria for hiring and evaluating adolescent sexual health providers that details all the skills and knowledge needed to make sure your programs and services are the best they can be. The development of the Core Competencies was modeled on the same procedures used to develop core competences for public health workers, nurses, social workers, therapists, and addiction counselors. Over 100 national experts in reproductive health gave input to the competencies over the two years of development. Date: Thursday January 19th, 2012 Time: 2pm-3:30pm Registration Fee: TeenNow California members: $10, Non-members: $25, TeenNow California Annual Membership Fee: $50 After registering you will be directed to a payment page. Once payment is received, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/817564038 Don't miss out on these great, inexpensive ways to get training without having to travel! If you have a "wish list" of trainings you want to see offered, please contact us at tnca@teennowcalifornia.org--and remember, as a member you get discounts on all our trainings and services! Holiday Shopping? Earn money for TeenNow while you shop!  Shop online and do some good - support TeenNow California. GoodShop is a shopping portal that donates a percentage of almost every purchase from more than 2,500 stores. Please choose to donate to TeenNow California. Get started at Goodshop.com!
 Searching the Internet? Support TeenNow California while you search!
Use Goodsearch.com (under "Who Do You GoodSearch For" type in "TeenNow California") and GoodShop.com and do some good - support TeenNow California. Please donate today to help us amp up our advocacy work, trainings, and conferences! With your help, we can increase services and better serve your needs. To donate today, visit our website.
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 Happy Holidays from TeenNow California! |
Film Review: Let's Talk About Sex!
Sex is part of our culture, especially youth culture. Sexual imagery is inescapable: billboards, magazine covers, movies, and Internet ads inundate us with it. But we're still not supposed to talk about it. The new documentary, "Let's Talk About Sex" by James Houston addresses this conundrum with the central question, "if sex is everywhere, but it is taboo to talk about, what effect is it having on young people?" Houston uses interesting interviews, engaging graphics, and alarming data to show that teens are paying a terrible price for this confusion, fear, and silence around sex and sexuality in US culture: increasing rates of unintended pregnancy, STDs, and HIV. And American taxpayers are paying billions of dollars to treat these preventable problems. Read more
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 Target Launches $5 Million Giving Competition With 'Ellen DeGeneres Show'
Target has announced that it will distribute $5 million in grants to elementary and secondary schools recommended by viewers of the Ellen DeGeneres Show. The Minneapolis-based retailer will award grants of $100,000 each to K-12 schools recommended by viewers of the talk show as part of its pledge to distribute $1 billion in support of education by the end of 2015. To participate, viewers must submit through the show's Web site the name of a school that needs help and a compelling story that explains why the school should receive a grant. From those submissions, Target will select fifty schools to receive a grant, which can be used for new books, upgraded technology, and other efforts designed to improve the school's learning environment. In addition, two schools will be featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. "Education is at the heart of Target's giving, which is why we look for innovative ways to give to schools in need while engaging our [customers] at the same time," said Laysha Ward, president of Target community relations. "We are proud to team up with the Ellen DeGeneres Show and its viewers to help us select fifty schools to each receive a $100,000 grant that can be used to purchase the resources that students and teachers need to excel in the classroom." Nominate your school here
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New Research: "Abstinence-Only Education and Teen Pregnancy Rates: Why We Need Comprehensive Sex Education in the U.S"
The United States ranks first among developed nations in rates of both teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. In an effort to reduce these rates, the U.S. government has funded abstinence-only sex education programs for more than a decade. However, a public controversy remains over whether this investment has been successful and whether these programs should be continued. Using the most recent national data (2005) from all U.S. states with information on sex education laws or policies (N = 48), we show that increasing emphasis on abstinence education is positively correlated with teenage pregnancy and birth rates. This trend remains significant after accounting for socioeconomic status, teen educational attainment, ethnic composition of the teen population, and availability of Medicaid waivers for family planning services in each state. These data show clearly that abstinence-only education as a state policy is ineffective in preventing teenage pregnancy and may actually be contributing to the high teenage pregnancy rates in the U.S. In alignment with the new evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative and the Precaution Adoption Process Model advocated by the National Institutes of Health, we propose the integration of comprehensive sex and STD education into the biology curriculum in middle and high school science classes and a parallel social studies curriculum that addresses risk-aversion behaviors and planning for the future. Read the full article here
Is the Internet Filling the Sexual Health Information Gap for Teens? An Exploratory Study A new study in the Journal of Health Communication explains at the same time that there was a decline in comprehensive school-based sex education, adolescents' use of the Internet became nearly universal. This study explores adolescents' use and evaluation of the internet for sexual health information, with a focus on the issues of contraception and abstinence. The authors conducted 58 in-depth interviews with juniors and seniors in 3 public high schools in New York City and Indiana. Most of the adolescents used the Internet on a daily basis, but few considered it a main source of information about contraception or abstinence. Students were more likely to rely on and had greater trust in traditional sexuality education sources such as school, family members, and friends. Most of the adolescents the authors interviewed were wary of sexual health information on the Internet, and the authors describe strategies adolescents used to sort through the abundance of sex-related material. Formal and informal efforts to provide sexuality education to adolescents should include specific age- and content-appropriate Web sites because many teens are not actively searching on their own, and they express reservations about relying on the Internet as a source of sexual health information. Read more
UCLA Nursing's Teen-Mom Intervention Program to Receive Funding Under Affordable Care Act The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has chosen an adolescent pregnancy-intervention program designed by the UCLA School of Nursing as a model program for funding under the healthcare reform law. The Public Health Nursing Early Intervention Program (PHN-EIP) for Adolescent Mothers, which was designed to improve pregnancy outcomes among young Latina and African American adolescents, is one of only two nurse models approved for implementation by Health and Human Services. This means that agencies and states that implement the model program may be eligible to receive funding under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). "According to the Centers for Disease Control, over 400,000 teenagers gave birth in 2009," said Deborah Koniak-Griffin, a professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and director of the school's Center for Vulnerable Populations Research. "Unfortunately, the babies of these young girls are more likely to be born into poverty, have low birth weight requiring hospitalization and suffer childhood health problems than babies born to older mothers." The UCLA-designed program was first implemented in conjunction with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. High-risk pregnant young women received home visits from the middle of their pregnancy through the end of their child's first year. Prenatal visits focused on the use of prenatal healthcare, preparation for childbirth, self-care during pregnancy and preparation for motherhood. For the first year after the child was born, mothers received information on family planning, infant care and well-baby healthcare. "The costs to the U.S. healthcare system are substantial -- about $9 billion each year -- so it is in the interest of the states to enhance the health outcomes for those teens who do become pregnant and for their babies," Koniak-Griffin said. For more information about eligibility, guidance and application submissions for the MIECHV program, visit www.grants.gov. Read more  Book Addresses Sex Ed and Relationships for People with Autism
A new book, Intimate Relationships and Sexual Health, provides readers with an "all you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask/teach" curriculum on sexuality tailored to the unique characteristics of high-functioning adolescents and adults on the autism spectrum. This comprehensive and extensively researched curriculum (with a companion CD), written by Indiana University Bloomington co-authors Catherine Davies and Melissa Dubie, provides 11 detailed lessons covering the complex topics of sex education and relationships. Subject matter includes fact-based content such as anatomy and reproduction along with lessons that teach aspects of social judgment such as dating, relationship building and decision making. The book includes teaching strategies and techniques that have been shown to be effective for those with autism spectrum disorders. Each lesson includes a highly structured lesson plan that incorporates learning objectives, individual and group activities, student assignments and handouts. Suggestions are also provided for adapting each lesson to individual rather than group instruction. The curriculum can be used by instructors from a variety of backgrounds including teachers, social workers, psychologists, parents and therapists. |
 Help Protect Affordable Contraception
Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health encourage providing contraceptive coverage for employees in all lines of work. Every woman deserves affordable health care, including contraception, regardless of where she works. Faith-based organizations shouldn't be exempt from providing coverage. Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health urge you to resist all efforts to expand the faith-based refusal exception to Health and Human Services' rules on insurance coverage for birth control. Get more info here
New Report Documents Benefits of Expanding Publicly Funded Contraception Services
A new report that pulls together the body of evidence from evaluations of state programs that have expanded Medicaid eligibility for family planning finds that the benefits they provide are broad and far-reaching. According to "Medicaid Family Planning Expansions: Lessons Learned and Implications for the Future," by Adam Sonfield and Rachel Benson Gold of the Guttmacher Institute, these programs have proven both effective and cost-effective, while simultaneously pioneering innovations in outreach and enrollment that hold important lessons for the implementation of health care reform."The body of evidence is clear," says author Adam Sonfield. "Expanding eligibility for contraceptive services under Medicaid has enabled women to access the services they want and need, while reducing the toll on federal and state taxpayers. As if that weren't enough, these expansions have also resulted in innovative outreach and enrollment practices, which can serve as models for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act." Read more
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ALL REGIONS
Webinar: TeenNow California, Sex Isn't "Dirty": Being Sex Positive When Teaching Teens When: Wednesday, December 13, 2011, 12pm-1pm
What: See detailed info above. Register here Webinar: Providing Excellent Services: What Every Adolescent Sexual Health Provider Should Know When: January 19th, 2011, 2pm-3:30pm What: See detailed info above. Register here REGION 2
Stockton Health and Wellness Workshops (Free!) When: Thursdays, December 1, 2011-January 5, 2012, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Where: Hilton Stockton, 2323 Grand Canal Blvd.
Stockton, CA
What: Presented in English and Spanish, each week we discuss a different topic related to simple changes in our daily routine that can lead to significant improvement in our health and quality of life. Meeting topics, location, and schedule subject to change without notice. Please call (209) 642-7084 to confirm current topics and times. December 8, 2011: Beat Stress and Curb InflammationDecember 15, 2011: Key Nutrients that Renew and Optimize Health, December 22, 2011: Supportive Nutrients in Daily Life, December 29, 2011: Building Your Healthy Support System, January 5, 2012: Living Longer through Healthy Habits. Contact: ali@AliBritschgi.com Get more info here
REGION 3 How Kids Learn: A One Day Conference in the Bay Area
When: Friday January 27, 2012 from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
Where: Berkeley, CA, David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, 94794What: Experts and researchers in the fields of brain research, the new science of learning and youth development share ideas about how kids learn. Discounts for direct service youth organizations. Register here
Teen Talk Sexuality Education Teacher Training
When: February 1st and 2nd, 2011, 9am-4pm
Where: Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Ortega Building, 2350 El Camino Real, Mountain View, Ca 94040
What: Ideal for middle school and high school teachers, and community/health educators. This workshop will cover: California Education Code, healthy relationships, values clarification in sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS), abstinence/not having sex, birth control updates, encouraging parent/child communication, pregnancy options, decision-making skills, sexual identity & gender, sex and the media, how to answer tough questions from teens, and more. Participants will receive a hard copy of our bilingual Teen Talk curriculum. Discount if registered by January 15th. Register here
REGION 7
Southern California Sexual Health Summit
When: Wednesday February 15th, 2012 10am-4pm
Where: California Endowment in Downtown Los Angeles
What: The Southern California Sexual Health Collaborative will be hosting a Sexual Health Summit. This event is a time to share programs, ideas and best practices with colleagues across Southern California who are working to improve the sexual health of youth and adults in the region. This is an informal event designed to provide a forum for people to come together to identify some priorities and share ideas about working in one of the most diverse and populous areas of the nation. With the devastating budget cuts to social services and the overall national economy, it's even more critical for service providers, researchers, government officials and community members to come together and share resources and experiences. Event details and agenda forthcoming!The event is free of charge; however, no food will be provided (there is a cafeteria on site). Space is limited, so sign up early! Get more info and register here
REGION 8
Film Premiere: "Indoctrinated: The Grooming of Children into Prostitution"
When: Tuesday December 6, 2011, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Where: Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Theater, USD
What: Free premiere of the educational film "Indoctrinated: The Grooming of Children into Prostitution." Indoctrinated is a documentary film about child sex trafficking in San Diego County. This film uncovers the scope and destructive nature of child sex trafficking and teaches parents and youth about the tactics used by pimps and gangs to recruit, groom, psychology coerce and indoctrinate their victims into a life of sexual exploitation and violence. A life that no one would ever choose. SOLD OUT http://www.indoctrinated.org/
2nd Annual Healthy Behaviors Conference- Changing Lives, Saving Lives
When: December 7-9, 2011
Where: San Diego, CA.
What: The BOOST Collaborative & the Center for Collaborative Solutions (CCS) continue their collaboration to provide enhanced support and lead national K-12 educators in the out-of-school time field to promote healthy lifestyles for youth. As a result of this collaboration, the organizations will provide the
This conference is part of the BOOST family of conferences and co-sponsored by the Center for Collaborative Solutions, which developed the Healthy Behaviors Initiative that has demonstrated the power of afterschool programs in addressing the childhood obesity crisis. The Healthy Behaviors Conference carries a level of credibility and quality that will appeal to the leaders supporting youth in the out-of-school field. Register here
***Want To Get Publicity and Support for Your Events and Programs?***
Send us your news or announcements! If they're relevant to our members and supporters, we'll publish them! Send information to tnca@teennowcalifornia.org
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Partnership for Children and Youth Seeking Director of Technical Assistance
The Director of Technical Assistance will oversee the Partnership for Children and Youth's technical assistance (TA) projects in the nine counties of the Bay Area. Five ongoing projects are focused on improving the quality and quantity of after-school and summer programs for children and youth in underserved communities. The Director of TA will oversee these ongoing projects and develop new TA projects to address emerging needs. He/She will also provide direct TA to a new initiative focused on improving quality in two summer programs with a STEM focus. Get the full job description here Hiring?
E-mail tnca@teennowcalifornia.org and we will post your job announcements here. Your position will be sure to reach a variety of health and teen pregnancy professionals.
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TeenNow California (formerly CACSAP)
(619) 741-9650
3468 Citrus St. Suite F
Lemon Grove, CA 91945
www.teennowcalifornia.org
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Trivia
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Test your trivia knowledge and win a TeenNow California prize if you are the first to respond with the correct answer on our Facebook Page!
Trivia Question: What is the difference between abstinence-only and abstinence-plus education?
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Quote of the Month
| "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that"
-Martin Luther King Jr. |
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Become a TeenNow California Member!
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Support pregnant and parenting teens; help us prevent teen pregnancy. If you are an existing member, now is the perfect time to renew your membership! If you are not a member, we encourage you to join today! As a member you get access to all the latest TeenNow California news and events, as well as other benefits. Check out the brochure, join online, or contact us.
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TeenNow California is a state-wide organization that provides training, technical assistance, advocacy, and professional development opportunities to those working with adolescents.
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