FAITH COMMUNITIES “Teens, even adult parents of teenagers, don’t know where to necessarily find these programs and resources. It’s not to say that they’re not out there. It’s just people aren’t aware.” --Faith Community Interviewee for Community Readiness Assessment
WHAT WE KNOW WORKS
Dallas residents have strong ties to their faith communities and are more likely than many other urban communities around the country to identify a strong faith affiliation. Leaders in these faith traditions—particularly Evangelical Protestant, Mainline Protestant, and Catholic denominations— have the potential to reach significant proportions of their congregations in teen pregnancy prevention. Each church or other faith community must decide for itself whether or how to become involved, but the potential is there for greater pastoral and lay leadership in the prevention of teen pregnancy. This can occur when supporting caregivers and parents to address difficult issues, and by training their own youth leaders and staff to address issues surrounding sex.
WHERE WE ARE
Faith community leaders have been surveyed twice by Ntarupt, first for a Texas Woman’s University study completed in 2017 and then interviewed for a Community Readiness Assessment completed by Ntarupt in 2019. It is an understatement to say that Religious leadership has a big influence in the community. This is seen by some to hinder teen pregnancy prevention efforts, while Ntarupt sees the potential for them to step up and become leaders on this issue. They are recognized as powerful institutions that can make or break initiatives like teen pregnancy prevention efforts. The needs assessment completed by Texas Woman’s University for Ntarupt in 2016 gathered data from interviews with Dallas’s faith community leaders. These leaders felt that churches or other religious organizations play an important but limited role in teen pregnancy prevention. The Community Readiness Assessment, likewise, identified faith community participation as a pivotal part of addressing teen pregnancy. » 96% of religious leaders “strongly agreed” that their community needed more efforts to prevent teen pregnancy » 82% of religious leaders said that they/religious groups should be doing more to help prevent teen pregnancy » Leaders cited a lack of educational materials and the education needed to use them as obstacles to conducting sexual education in a church setting » Religious leaders were most likely to cite a “lack of career and educational goals” as the biggest risk for unintended pregnancy » A full 73% of religious leaders said they were “very comfortable” discussing healthy relationships with teens
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