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!

How Do You Slice Your Pizza?

On Monday January 14th, the Youth Leadership Board was privileged to have Clay Carroll from State Farm come speak to them about learning to handle and budget their money. Since the group consists of Juniors and Seniors in high school the timing was perfect. Many of them will be in college soon and having to make financial decisions on their own for the first time.

Clay began the presentation by talking about successful people and how they handle their money. He noted the importance of having a plan, setting aside money, leaving set aside money alone, and protecting themselves from risk. He used the example of slicing a pizza to help them understand the idea of budgeting and gave each of them the tools to begin creating their own budget. Even if all of their money comes from their parents, he helped them understand that beginning to budget now will only help them later.

Clay left the students with four rules for building financial security.
1: Protect first that which you can least afford to lose... your potential earning power.
2: Protect yourself from large losses - which might be rare - but from which it would be difficult to recover financially. These are inexpensive to insure against.
3: Always have a liquid cushion to fall back on for emergencies and opportunities.
4: Save/invest as much as you can, as often as you can, starting as SOON as you can.

Many of the students expressed that they learned a great deal of information and have a new understanding of the importance of budgeting money. Clay helped Growing Our Own Youth further our mission of enhancing the future of today's youth by strengthening area families through education and community involvement.