1. Introduction and Purpose Introduction & Purpose
Lessons Learned from Implementing Teen Pregnancy Prevention Interventions in African American Faith Based Organizations
Melva Thompson-Robinson, DrPH, Annie Weisman, MPH, Crystal Lee, MPH, Pamelia Atkins-Girouard, & Robert Robinson
Center for Health Disparities Research, University of Nevada – Las Vegas
Introduction and Purpose
Introduction & Purpose
Lessons Learned
Host sessions on evenings or times when the youth group is already meeting.
Conduct sessions in the fall and spring, while avoiding holidays and times when school is not in session.
Have a strong leader from within the church to help facilitate the intervention.
Have the teens that are already enrolled recruit their friends.
Clear communication with the pastors, youth and parents is critical.
Regularly remind the participants & parents about when sessions are.
When using technology for communication, everything should be cell phone compatible. Must be mindful that most people do not have access to a printer.
Community-based instructors can be used to implemented a sex education intervention.
Denomination has little impact on decisions to participate.
This project demonstrates that collaboration with faith-based organizations and community health projects works.
The Southern Nevada Teen Pregnancy Prevention Project (SN-TPPP) has been providing comprehensive sexual education in African American faith-based organizations in Las Vegas throughout the past four years. SN-TPPP is a collaborative project in which the University of Nevada Las Vegas Center for Health Disparities Research is partnering with various faith-based organizations in the African American community to reduce the numbers of teenagers in the community that become pregnant. These four years have been educational for the students that attended the sessions and for those tasked with bringing this information into the community. During the time that this program has been implemented, Nevada went from being number two in the nation in teen pregnancy down to number four (Guttmacher Institute, Teen Pregnancy. Retrieved August 5, 2014, from .
We have found it helpful to host our interventions on evenings or times when the youth group is already meeting. Having someone from the church is very important to help facilitate the implementation of the intervention. This person is critical to helping maintain and build the relationship between the participants and the project team. Another strategy that has been successful is having the teens that are already enrolled recruit their friends.
The challenges in bringing this intervention into faith-based organizations have been manageable. We have learned invaluable lessons about communication with pastors, parents and teens as well as understanding decision-making processes within faith-based organizations. The numerous lessons learned during the development and implementation of this program could be beneficial for further collaboration between faith-based organizations and community health projects.
Acknowledgements
SN-TPPP is funded through TP1AH through the Office of Adolescent Health, US Department of Health and Human Services.
Presented at the American Public Health Association 142th Annual Meeting and Expo, November 2014