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PROGRAM AREAS - Preventing Teen Pregnancy
Teen Pregnancy is Everyone’s Problem
Washington, DC’s young people are one of our city’s most
precious assets. Like every community, we want our children to thrive
so that the District will be the great community we are all committed
to it becoming.
Among the many challenges our young people face, one of the most
serious is the problem of teenage pregnancy. Every year one
in sixteen teen girls in our city becomes pregnant, almost
always unintentionally, and almost always without a husband. This
however, compares favorably to the rate of one in four when we began
to focus our program in 1998. Indeed, there has been an unprecedented
and unpredictable decline in teen pregnancies of over 70% since
1993! This drop in the rate of teen pregnancy, if sustained, will
positively affect the quality of life in our community for many
years to come.
Preventing Teen Pregnancy is a High Leverage Action
Because teen pregnancy often accompanies other problems affecting
our youth, preventing early pregnancy is a high leverage action
that reaches to the heart of many social problems. The links between
teen pregnancy and poverty, low birth weight babies, developmental
and learning disabilities, crime, violence and sexual abuse are well
documented and their impact on our community is obvious. In short,
the level of teen pregnancy is a key indicator of the health
of our community, with ramifications beyond the teens most
directly affected. Addressing this issue sustainably will depend on
our community putting in place a broad system that has an impact on
the lives of all of our youth.
Recent Progress
In 1998 the Summit Fund, along with others, committed itself to reducing
teen pregnancy in the District by 50% by the year 2005. The
most recent statistics available (2005) indicate a 57.7% drop
over the past seven years. This reduction exceeds the national
trends and is definitely cause for celebration. There is much more
that needs to be done to ensure that progress continues and is sustainable
over time. We seek to build on this record of accomplishment and make
the commitment to a pregnancy-free childhood the goal for our entire
community.

DC State Center for Health Statistics
The Summit Fund’s Teen Pregnancy Prevention Priorities
The Summit Fund will consider support for the following strategies:
- Public Awareness and Involvement
It is vital to dramatically raise the profile of this issue and
to send a clear message throughout our community that teen pregnancy
is not in anyone’s best interest and is a responsibility
we all bear – teenagers and adults alike.
- Advocacy
Addressing this issue will require significant resources from
all segments of our community – public, private, and nonprofit
sectors for all forms of effective teen pregnancy prevention programs.
- Supporting Research-based Programs
Current research indicates that the following areas are key to
preventing teen pregnancy:
- Comprehensive programs with best practices that serve the
most vulnerable;
- Access to reproductive health care and contraceptive services,
including emergency contraception; and
- Comprehensive sexuality education for both girls and boys.
- Emerging Needs
When the context shifts, new and innovative strategies and solutions
will become apparent that address significant gaps in this chronic
problem. Organizations that identify those strategies must be
fostered and their capacity strengthened so that what’s
needed can be provided.
Restoring the Anacostia River
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| Photo by Lloyd Wolf |


Are We There Yet?
Fourteen year analysis of teen
pregnancy data in Washington D.C.
(PDF 370KB)

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| Celebration at the opening of Planned Parenthood
of Metropolitan Washington’s teen clinic in May 2003 |

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| Dr. Michael Carrera talks to members of the
DC Campaign Best Practices Coalition about his research based
teen pregnancy prevention program. |
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