Individual Teens

WHAT WE KNOW WORKS

Education. Evidence-based, comprehensive, medically accurate IN IS ONLY FOR AGES

reproductive health curricula have been demonstrated through years of research to have an impact on changing behavior, thereby reducing teen pregnancy rates. Limiting availability to such programs—or offering abstinence-only programs—effectively limits a teen’s ability to make informed decisions for themselves.

Historically, Texas school districts have supported abstinence-only education or given none. More than 80 percent of Texas school districts in the 2015-16 school year taught abstinence-only or nothing at all when it came to sex education: • Abstinence-only: 58.3% • No sex education: 25.1% • Abstinence-plus: 16.6%.13 The fact that Texas Counties are 4 out of the top 5 Largest Counties in the US ranked by teen birth rate THERE ARE NOT A

LOT OF PROGRAMS TO PREVENT TEEN PREGNANCIES. THE PROGRAM I PUT MY KIDS demonstrates this.

6-14 YEARS OLD. THERE NEEDS TO BE A PROGRAM FOR OLDER TEENS, TOO. MAYBE I HAVEN’T LOOKED ENOUGH.” –PARENT INTERVIEWEE

In an information vacuum, teens are more prone to rely on misinformed friends, believe myths about preventing pregnancy, or engage in “magical thinking” that allows them to believe an unplanned pregnancy cannot happen to them. By investing in comprehensive, medically accurate sexual and reproductive health education programs that are age-appropriate at the elementary, middle school and high school levels, entire communities will experience benefits ranging from higher self-efficacy and graduation rates to increased averaged earnings.

Dallas educators surveyed by Texas Woman’s University reported the following issues or concerns related to teen pregnancy prevention:

46% of Dallas teachers, administrators, counselors, and case managers surveyed said that teen pregnancy was an issue on their campuses 23% of this group said they had “often” been approached by a student needing sexual health advice Only 15% felt that their school’s sex education was “enough to meet the needs of youth” 69% cited lack of education about contraceptive use as the greatest risk for unintended pregnancy Lack of access to contraception and lack of career/education goals were cited by 46% as the greatest risk for unintended pregnancy

The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) has extensively researched different approaches to sexuality education, and identified certain elements that are effective at reducing risky behavior and teen pregnancy, which include:

Helping teens become effective decision-makers; Information on the benefits of abstinence, along with information on how to effectively prevent pregnancy if teens do choose to have sex; Medically accurate information on anatomy, pregnancy, contraception, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs); An emphasis on family (including parent/caregiver-child) communication; and Information on the characteristics of healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Public Awareness: Communities who have made significant inroads on teen pregnancy prevention like Milwaukee and Tulsa, included public messaging to motivate teens to consider the impact of their decisions, and to drive them to reliable resources. The resources need to be accessible and responsive to the questions they are asking.

WHERE WE ARE I HAVE A DAUGHTER Education: In alignment with the Socialecologic Model, Ntarupt SO I’M WORRIED. took a community level impact approach by advocating for THEY DON’T KNOW THE educational changes in local ISDs related to the adoption of CONSEQUENCES evidence-based sexual health education. Dallas Independent THAT COME AFTER School District (DISD) adopted a set of evidence-based sexual HAVING A BABY.” and reproductive health programs for multiple grade levels in -PARENT INTERVIEWEE February, 2019. Ntarupt was a major influencer in this change. Ntarupt mobilized its Alliance member organizations, board, and community partners like the First Unitarian Church of Dallas to support the Dallas ISD school board in this important change and decision to provide evidence informed, medically accurate curricula to its students – eventually all 155,000 students will have had the benefit of real information. The first cohort of students should have received this instruction late in the 2019-2020 school year, though COVID-19 surely altered plans. Until this implementation, DISD, one of the largest school districts in the country, had taught little or no sex education, contributing to Dallas’ high teen birth rates.

“I have a daughter who is in high school. There was a young lady in her school that had no clue whether she was pregnant or not.” --Parent Interviewee

“…A lot of the times what the school districts are teaching aren’t comprehensive. And parents would like to have more knowledge sometimes.” --Health Organization Interviewee

To assist DISD, Ntarupt trained 22 teachers in DISD on one of the new curricula, sadly only a fraction of the number of teachers who are needed for full implementation. As always, teachers who deliver sexual health information should be trained by a certified trainer, be comfortable with the subject matter, and be trained in inclusivity and trauma informed approaches. Ntarupt will do whatever is necessary to assist in this implementation as 8,000-12,000 students per grade level now have the opportunity to receive accurate sexual health information.

Other school districts and charter school networks in the area have yet to implement this type of curriculum. Ntarupt has inventoried local school districts, to the extent they would cooperate and identified other key school districts who must be part of the student level support and education needed.

Those surrounding large school districts which are in Dallas County (at least partially) include Garland, Mesquite, Irving, De

Soto, Grand Prairie, Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Richardson.

Tarrant County, having adopted and implemented evidence- based curriculum, has a lower teen birth rate than Dallas County.

On a Dallas community level, Ntarupt and its 2015 Teen Pregnancy Prevention federal grant subcontractors (UT Southwestern, Planned Parenthood, The Concilio and Girls Inc.) delivered evidencebased, medically accurate teen pregnancy prevention programs to teens and caregivers/parents over the past 5 years. The delivery of education included over 50 community-based organizations and charter schools. Additionally, Ntarupt provided hundreds of hours of evidence-informed education to groups who do not have time for full interventions. Over this time, we have reached well over 5,000 people. To further support students, we delivered training to youth serving professionals – Askable Adults-and have trained reproductive health education professionals. As the leader of sexual health education in North Texas, in response to COVID-19, Ntarupt rapidly pivoted to deliver virtual education, and has reached students, parents and youth serving professionals on Zoom, Google Hangouts, on the phone and even socially distancing in driveways.

In July of 2020 Ntarupt received another federal award from HHS’s Office of Population Affairs – Optimally Changing the Map for Teen Pregnancy Prevention. Using a systems approach, Ntarupt will work within two significant local charter systems Uplift Education and Can Academies to provide evidence-based education, create and run a Youth Advisory Board, an adult Community Advisory Group and refer teens to reproductive healthcare. Ntarupt is subcontracting on another OPA grant to serve foster youth and parents. This collaboration will be one with multiple organizations including the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and Health Futures of Texas. To engage in a State level approach, based on the Socioecological Model, Ntarupt is currently engaged in a multi-city coalition to create policy change related to sex education -Texas is Ready. This year, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) will review and hopefully expand the state’s sexual health education curriculum minimum standards, which have not been revised in 22 years. Ntarupt, Healthy Futures of Texas, and the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, together, launched a statewide campaign as part of a grassroots advocacy effort to improve sex education curriculum standards. The campaign, Texas is Ready, has used the expertise of its combined staffs to offer review and guidance of the standards and an online advocacy resource page at www.texasisready.org.

The three organizations (one Statewide and two local) were able to leverage the advocacy expertise of the Texas Campaign, along with the combined with curriculum knowledge provided by the educators from Ntarupt and Healthy Futures, data from the Texas Campaign, and marketing coordination from Ntarupt. As the effort stands currently, a significant change to require contraception education in middle school was added so that even students who don’t take health in high school, will get this vital information needed for a lifetime of health.

Creating Awareness: In the first month, the campaign earned over $300k in earned media via PR efforts Ntarupt and Talk About It Dallas.com have been featured in the city’s most highly viewed media: WFAA Chanel 8, Fox 4 Texas, Al Dia, Dallas Morning News, D Magazine and more. In its first year, Ntarupt produced a short feature film, The Pull Out Game, highlighting the consequences of risky behavior. Ntarupt’s paid and organic digital social media efforts for TalkAboutItDallas have registered almost 9,000,000 impressions in the top teen birthrate zip codes. We are getting the message out where it matters. Ntarupt’s messages are not just for teens, its highest performing ads and messaging are targeted to parents, urging them to get talking and to start the conversation. This is an important conversation for parents and for our city. The high click-through rates on this media show our messaging is right, is resonating and that people want… to talk about it.

Reaching teens: in 2020, as COVID has driven teens away from in-person learning, and Ntarupt intensified efforts to reach them where they are on social media. With our media partner, 97.9 The Beat, Ntarupt launched #quaranteentalks campaign. Ntarupt is targeting teens and driving them to the talkaboutitdallas.com website to access information and resources. In the first half of 2020, the campaign launched a digital campaign targeting Dallas teens, which included Paid Search, and the top social media platforms - YouTube and Instagram. The results were: 5,561 clicks for paid search, and 1,177,652 impressions between YouTube and IG. During the six weeks that the campaign was active, 7,472 sessions of the Talk About it Dallas website were achieved.

Finally, we reached hundreds of parents with our Facebook live event about talking to your kids with influencer, MamaChallenge.

First campaign 2020 metric:

Ntarupt has engaged an evaluator for all of its public awareness activity and is preparing to launch its first set of surveys following these efforts. We know it will be a long haul, and are continuously working to improve.

WHERE WE ARE GOING & NECESSARY PARTNERS

PARTNERS

Ntarupt

School Districts

State Advocacy partners- The Texas Campaign to prevent Teen Pregnancy and Health Futures of Texas

Community Organizations

Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health education providers

Talk About It Dallas (a campaign of Ntarupt)

ROLE

Conduct advocacy to change and enhance local district policy Provide Training of reproductive health educators and direct education to youth and caregivers.

Education, adoption and implementation of quality evidencebased reproductive health education

Advocacy for positive changes in the State Education Code – TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) that up for review in 2020 and other supportive educational and health care policies Share data and research Launch new research Partner to train educators Partner to deliver education on a larger scale Share public awareness campaign messages (Talk About It Dallas)

Education Delivery sites, Alliance partners and advocates. Provide locations and include reproductive education in other youth development activities and parent/caregiver programs. Share public awareness campaign messages from Talkaboutidallas. com.

Advocacy partner for improved Reproductive Health Education in ISDs and on the State level Community education in sexual and reproductive health

Continue Public Awareness campaign getting information to teens