Reaching young men: 2 successful approaches
Ready to make the commitment to involving young men in preventing teen pregnancy? Take it from two established programs: Know your community and its needs, partner with other programs when possible, hire male workers to reach your target audience, and expect it to take time to get young men into the clinic setting.
The Teens on Track (TNT) program, sponsored by Planned Parenthood of Southern New Jersey in Camden, has been in operation since 1990, says Joyce Kurzweil, executive vice president. Even with high visibility and strong community support, young men have been slow to come to Planned Parenthood's twice-weekly all-male clinic. Thanks to the continued efforts of the program's male outreach workers, the clinic's numbers are building, she says. "Since we have been around so long, the community really sees that the commitment is there," Kurzweil explains. "We do have males who are coming in."
Working with local government and schools has been effective for the Baylor Teen Health Clinic, says Peggy Smith, PhD, clinic director. While each group has its own goals, everyone agrees that increased male involvement is important in lowering teen pregnancy rates in the Houston area, Smith says. About 12,000 adolescent visits are made each year to the seven Baylor Teen Health sites, with about 20% of them made by young men.
The TNT program incorporates recreation, education, and medical services to foster more responsible behavior and better health among male adolescents. A contract with the local YMCA allows the TNT program to use YMCA facilities to provide recreation and education sessions.
Eight Saturday nights a year, the YMCA is the center for "Teen Nite." Participants register at the door (capturing addresses for the TNT mailing list), then enter for an hour of education on male health and sexuality. These sessions, which are presented in an entertaining manner, often include informal discussions on the roles young men play in relationships with each other and the opposite sex. The evening ends with recreation; participants choose between swimming or basketball.
Attendance at Teen Nite has far exceeded program expectations. When the first event was presented, organizers looked for a maximum attendance of 30. Instead, 106 males between ages 10 and 18 arrived. Thinking the first Teen Nite was a fluke, organizers prepared for a second crowd of 75. A total of 130 young men attended that session. The Teen Nite mailing list now includes more than 600 names.
"The Teen Nite concept has been very successful because it gives us an opportunity to present sort of a party atmosphere," Kurzweil reports. "I think all over, not only in the urban setting but also the suburban setting, there are very few places that teens can go to have fun with their peers."
The TNT program also organizes two basketball and two swimming leagues each year at the YMCA and coordinates community center activities. TNT outreach workers have put together educational field trips and sponsored weekend retreats to expand the program's offerings.
All activities refer to the twice-weekly male health walk-in clinics held at the Camden Planned Parenthood facility. Scheduling the clinics after the local health department's STD clinics has been a good way to reach males at risk, Kurzweil says. A TNT outreach worker is available during the STD clinic, and providers direct patients to him for more in-depth discussions on male health issues. Other referrals come from school-based health clinics, YMCA programs, and parents who have heard of the TNT program and want their sons to receive its medical services.
The budget for the program averages about $100,000, with the majority of the costs covered through a grant from the William Penn Founda tion of Philadelphia.
"The Camden community loves this program," says Kurzweil. "They have never seen this kind of private foundation commitment. They know we are here to stay."
Sports medicine as a hook
Recognizing the strong role athletics play in young men's lives, the Baylor Teen Health Clinic has hired a sports medicine physician, Joe Chorley, MD. Chorley provides not only sports evaluations, but sports rehabilitation, sports training, and cardiovascular evaluations and consultations as well. The physician has developed strong relationships with the school coaches and attended local games. His dedication has been recognized with a varsity letter from the local school, says Smith. An adolescent medicine physician, Marian Chacko, MD, also brings an additional focus to male teens' special health needs.
Saturdays are 'For Males Only'
The Baylor Teen Health Clinic has made a major financial commitment to hiring male outreach staff. Those staff work with young men to develop an awareness of the importance of preventing teen pregnancy through the "For Males Only" program. In a series of Saturday conferences, "For Males Only" offers morning workshops and afternoon basketball tournaments for males at risk. Outreach workers recruit young men from housing projects, juvenile probation centers, and schools, and help them prevent unplanned pregnancies, stay in school, and improve academic performance and employment skills.
The male-oriented programs of the Teen Health Clinic cost about $100,000 per year, with funding gathered from a variety of federal, state, local, and nonprofit organizations. A local politician, El Franco Lee, has been a driving force in helping pull together funding for teen pregnancy prevention, Smith says.
"Because that is his priority, his staff steps forward and speaks about it, so there's a credibility in the community that we care," she observes. "It is a real gift."
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