School's out for the SUMMER!!

Whew! our school year flew by! I had not realized how long it had been since I posted about Growing Our Own Youth's activities. Let me begin by saying we had another great year in Montgomery public School System! All of our students were awesome, and our teachers we work with do an incredible job. We are so thankful to have the opportunity to serve our community, and educate about healthy decisions, at-risk behaviors, goal setting and prevention methods.

Also, already, we have been to a bunch of health fairs and the summer will only have more!

Below is one we did for our Strike Out Teen Pregnancy Event!  

Sadly, one of our Educators headed on to bigger and better things! We will miss Amelia Purifoy, but we are excited for her new endeavors! That means that we are HIRING!!!! If you know of anyone who might be interested, please email me at kjones@golfound.org with and updated resume and cover letter!

That's all for now!!

Katie 

BACK IN ACTION.....

Wow! What a crazy few weeks we have had here at the Gift of Life, and the Growing Our Own Youth office! We started back in the schools with our "Health Education" (formerly REAL) program, provided to the Montgomery Public School System which teaches students about making healthy decisions, as well as teaching them about at-risk behaviors. Preparing schedules proved to be a very crazy process, but great because we are all ready to continue this fall with a bunch of different presentations around the Montgomery area. Amelia Purifoy and Brittney Brooks are doing a wonderful job educating and relating so specifically with students, and have almost finished their first school, which was Floyd Middle School. Next, they will head to Carver High School after our training in Clanton, Alabama next week with the Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy!

These last few months I have definitely taken a "trial-and-error" approach to everything I have done in running the Campaign. I am so excited about where we are heading, as well as how many people we are going to reach through all of our efforts. We have been invited to numerous health fairs around Montgomery and some of our surrounding counties for the fall, and we are excited to get to meet some new people from around our area! Speaking of events, we will be at Bellingrath Middle School on September 29th for an event with COSA, where DEE-1 will be performing. It will be a great event for all ages!

Until next time (Which will be soon!)

Katie

Let Me Introduce Myself,

First of all, let me start out by saying how excited I am to be in this position as the new Campaign Director for Growing Our Own Youth. Being that this is my first week, I have been taking a lot of time researching and learning as much as I can about teen pregnancy, as well as the effect it has on our youth today. I have also been learning a lot about the Realizing Everything About Life (REAL) program and have had the privilege of watching the REAL facilitators, Brittany and Amelia (pictured left), do an awesome job presenting the curriculum.

I am Katie Jones, born and raised in the great city of Montgomery, AL. I graduated from Huntingdon College with a major in Communication Studies, and I absolutely love this city and all of the potential it carries. I have had the honor of working with some of the greatest people in the Montgomery area non-profit arena, and I am extremely excited to be taking on this role as the new Director of the Montgomery Campaign to End Teen Pregnancy.

One thing I have learned in the two, yes literally two, days that I have been in this position, is that teen pregnancy is so prevalent in our community. This morning, like I said earlier, I was listening to the facilitators of the REAL program present to students in a Montgomery area High School. In the beginning of the session, students are asked what their dreams are and what they need to do to accomplish that dream. When I got back into my car, I was thinking about how quickly a students dream can end once they have to trade the "student" life for their new "parent" life. Having a family member that had a child at a very young age, gave me the view of how quickly a persons life changes once they become a parent, even when they are still a child themselves. The best part is, teen pregnancy is 100% preventable! That's right, 100% preventable! That is why I am so passionate about educating all that I can about teen pregnancy and other factors that our youth are facing today. I am a strong beliver that it takes a village to raise a child. With that being said, it is my goal to do everything I can to help educate as many youth as possible in order to show them the "REAL" situations and consequences of choices we make.

I am excited to share with you the ways we are doing our best to combat the issue of Teen Pregnancy. As well as continuing to share my journey as the director of this wonderful program.

Until next time,

Katie

Facts about Slavery

At our April Youth Leadership Board Meeting, the students had the opportunity to hear about a subject that is impacting not only the word but the community we live in as well. Luv Bartlett, from Stella's Voice came and spoke to our students about what Stella's Voice is doing to stop human/sex trafficking in Moldova as well as Slavery/Trafficking in Montgomery and Alabama and the rest of the world.

Here are some of the interesting facts that Luv shared about slavery.

• The Slavery "Industry" rakes in an estimated $32 billion dollars each year
• Every minute of every day, 2 children- children who should be playing and learning and enjoying the most precious part of their lives- are sold into slavery. 
• 80% of all people trafficked into forced labor both for economic and sexual exploitation are women and girls. 
• As many as 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually. 
• Atlanta is a major hub of trafficking and ranked among the top 14 cities in the United States for the highest incidence of children used in prostitution. 
• The majority of trafficking victims are between the ages of 18 and 24. 

Luv Bartlett from Stella's Voice with Youth Leadership Board Senior Carlie Dunn

This information not only shocked many of the students but motivated them to learn more. They were able to connect this information with our mission by realizing that as we fight to prevent teen pregnancy and the spread of STDs- many girls and boys their age around the world have no choice in that matter and are forced to take part in sexual acts everyday. 

Joy In Our Town

In February, Gift of Life Chief Operations Officer Melody Jones and Growing Our Own Youth Director Jessica Whatley went on the Trinity Broadcasting Network program Joy In Our Town to share what Growing Our Own Youth is doing to help prevent teen pregnancy in our community.

You can catch a recording of the segment below!

Survive and Thrive 2013

This year we took the past concept of Survive and Thrive and changed it up! Instead of having all 8th grade students travel over to ASU we brought Survive and Thrive to them. Over three days, Willie Spears from The Willie Spears Experience spoke to over 1500 eighth grade students at nine middle schools in our Montgomery Public Schools system.

Willie using an interactive activity with students at Carr

Willie with our two REAL Facilitators, Amelia Purifoy and Brittney Brooks

Willie speaking to students at Baldwin Middle School

Willie at Floyd Middle Magnet

 

Willie at Goodwyn Middle School

Willie at Brewbaker Middle

Willie truly has a gift and captures the students attention and keeps them engaged to share an important message with them. His message focused on teen pregnancy prevention and STD prevention while instilling in the students the importance of making healthy decisions even at their young age.

Check out some of the comments received over the week.

Very powerful, I have never heard it put like that.
W. Levi Gailliard
Montgomery, AL, School District Consultant

 You were able to get on their level and then intellectually take them to another level.
Coach Jeff Corley
Capitol Heights Middle School, Montgomery, AL

 Willie brought it home. This is exactly what our students needed. Real. Relevant. Right on time.
Rod James
Assistant Principal, Goodwyn Middle School
Montgomery, AL

 

Willie Spears gave us exactly what we needed. I really enjoyed your presentation, you just kept it real. Keeping it real, great job.

Mr. Everett, PrincipalGeorgia Washington Middle School,
Montgomery, AL

 Amazing! Excellent. You were able to talk to my son in ways that I could not.
Ms. Peoples
Parent of Carr Middle School studentMontgomery, AL

 

Each student received a pencil with the Growing Our Own Youth information on it that day and will received a bracelet with the message "WAIT" on it in the following weeks when we go to deliver a follow up survey.

Willie with Southlawn Principal Mr. Vaughn

Growing Our Own Youth and Gift of Life are thankful to our sponsors and the team that helped put this together. A special thank you to AKD, Montgomery Public Schools, and our planning team! Finally, a huge thank you to Willie Spears himself!

Teen Pregnancy Numbers

We're so thrilled that Alabama as well as all the four counties we serve saw declines in their teen pregnancy numbers from 2011. Not just a decline, but Alabama teen pregnancy rate reached an ALL TIME LOW. Want to know the details? Here are the teen pregnancy rates from 2010 to 2011. Congratulations Alabama teens! Here's to watching those numbers go down every year. Below you can see the rates for 2010 and 2011 as well as a graph showing what a difference the last ten years has made. A big thank you to the Alabama Campaign to prevent Teen Pregnancy for these graphs.

Alabama

2010: 32.5    2011: 29.6

That's an 8.9% decrease!

Montgomery County:

2010: 40.2  2011: 33.4

That's a 17.1% decrease!

 

Autauga County:

2010: 26.5  2011: 18.8

That's a 29.1% decrease!

 

Elmore County:

2010: 27.7  2011: 22.8

That's a 17.7% decrease!

 

Lowndes County:

2010: 45.8  2011: 32.5 

That's a 29.0% decrease!