SASHA Community Luncheon

 On Tuesday, 27 May 2010, the Springfield Adolescent Sexual Health Advisory (SASHA) hosted a luncheon in partnership with the Springfield Department of Health and Human Services at the Basketball Hall of Fame (read Masslive's coverage here.)  Approximately 100 community partners were in attendance, as was Springfield Mayor Dominic Sarno, Superintendent Dr. Alan Ingram, representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Health, representatives from the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy and the YEAH! Network.

SASHA was first convened by Mayor Sarno in response to the high number of births and sexually transmitted infections (STI) among Springfield youth.  SASHA is made up of community advocates, representatives of the school district, parents, teen leaders, and representatives from the medical community.  SASHA's mission is to build community capacity and engage parents, teens and policymakers in preventing unintended teen pregnancy and STIs.  To achieve this goal, the community must be engaged in a coordinated effort, necessitating collaboration with community partners: parents, teens and community based organizations. 

In order to implement a strategy to increase educational attainment and expand economic opportunities for our youth, four action groups have been established:  Community, Business/Philanthropic, Education, and Medical/Public Health.   These action groups seek to build upon the strengths that already exist within the community and create a plan to operationalize objectives that foster integration and collaboration. 

If you are interested in helping Springfield and SASHA move forward with these goals, please read the descriptions of the action groups below, find the one that best suits you, your strengths and interests, and contact the YEAH! Network at:  info@yeahnetwork.org.   (Please note, this email is checked twice a week.)   As SASHA continues to meet and synthesize information gathered at the luncheon, please look for updates on the YEAH Network blog. 

Action Groups
Community Engagement - Juan Genera

• Community Education and outreach to increase awareness and strengthen parental and teen involvement 
• Improve Parent-Child communication relating to sexual health

Business/Philanthropic - Hector Toledo

• As critical members of the Greater Springfield Community, our business and philanthropic partners can ensure that our message is shared and provide critical funding that will be needed to continue out very important work

Education - Dr. Ann Southworth

• Ensure the vision of curriculum implementation, evaluation of the implementation process, forming community linkages for student referrals

Medical/Public Health - Helen Caulton-Harris,  Dr. Sara Perez McAdoo

• Improve access and reduce obstacles to quality reproductive health services for youth

SASHA Community Luncheon - April 27, 2010

2008 Massachusetts Birth Data: YEAH! Network Response

The Massachusetts 2008 Birth Data, released last week, highlighted the continued disparity in the teen birth rates in many western Massachusetts communities. The information in the report underscores the continued need for comprehensive and sustained efforts to improve reproductive health outcomes for youth. The YEAH! (Youth Empowerment Adolescent Health) Network, a community coalition in Hampden County, uses advocacy, research, and community education to influence policy and practice in adolescent sexual health. Our response to the 2008 teen birth data will be ongoing: we view this year’s annual report from the Department of Public Health as an opportunity to go beneath the surface of the numbers and to explore several of the unanswered questions raised by the data.

The rates of both Springfield and Holyoke remain in stark contrast to the Massachusetts teen birth rate of 20.1 per 1,000. In 2008, for the fourth year in a row, Holyoke experienced the highest teen birth rate in the state: 115.3 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. This represents a 21% increase from the city’s 2007 rate of 95.4 per 1,000. The YEAH! Network is developing research questions that will link these statistics to information about poverty and other demographic information, which will inform ongoing policy reform and other community intervention strategies.  While we are encouraged by the 27% drop in Springfield’s teen birth rate for 2008 (61.4 per 1,000, compared with 84.3 in 2007), it is preemptive to suggest that this change can be attributed solely to existing programs in the city. The city of Springfield is in the early stages of making positive changes to address the teen birth rate disparity in the city: a city-wide task force addressing adolescent sexual health has been looking closely at these issues for a little over one year. In August 2009, the Springfield school committee approved a comprehensive sex education curriculum that began implementation this past winter. While these encouraging steps should certainly be applauded, there is still substantial work to do.

The Department of Public Health’s report is useful for providing a snapshot of where we have been, but it is not the whole picture. The take-away message is this: We are on the right track, and it is vital that we do not become complacent at this crucial tipping point. In Springfield, the school-based policies have only been implemented a few months ago. In Holyoke, the task forces are still forming. A coordinated and continuous effort, with full community participation, is the only way to achieve the conditions that foster adolescent sexual health: access to information and education; access to reproductive health services; and access to opportunity for the future. The YEAH! Network research team is excited to investigate the intersecting dynamics behind the data in the birth report, and to work with community-based organizations, local governments and schools, and community residents to create an informed, empowered, and engaged response to this health disparity.

¡Hablando Claro Springfield!

Latinos Speak out about Adolescent Health! 

 

A group of 10 Springfield parents gathered on March 3rd to discuss what the Latino community can do to take a stronger leadership role in improving the sexual health of youth. The purpose of the discussion was to highlight the voices of Latino parents as well as their contribution to finding solutions to a health crisis that disproportionately impacts Latino youth.

Below are some of the major themes from the discussion:

• There exists a difference in views and perceptions of teen sexual health between generations of Latinos.  Younger Latino parents support educating their children about sexual health and the prevention of sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.

• We need to engage men and boys in the dialogue about teen sexual health and increase their role in addressing the high rates of sexually transmitted infectionss and pregnancy in the youth population. We should highlight the importance of healthy relationships.

• We need to get more information out to the Latino community about this issue in order to increase awareness and provide parents and care givers with the information they need to communicate better with their children about sexual health issues.

The discussion provided a wealth of information that has planted the seeds for the next actions steps. The YEAH Network thanks the participants of this group for being informed, empowered and engaged in improving the sexual health of youth and taking steps to strengthen our families!