MOAPPP April 2011 E-Monthly

Minnesota Minors’ Consent Statute Rescinded

Senate File 1017 (PDF) passed out of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, and moved on to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. It has not passed out of that committee at this time, but it includes many elements that MOAPPP has grave concerns about, including:

Health care providers may no longer provide confidential care for pregnancy, STI or HIV testing, family planning, alcohol or drug use or mental health issues—except in cases of incest. Minors must go to court to get permission to receive confidential health services in case of incest.
Makes it a misdemeanor for any health care provider to provide such care.
Allows parents to sue health care providers in civil court if they do provide such care.
Links to the minors’ consent statute to abortion services.
Changes the state statute regarding abortion services for minors from “parental notification” to “parental consent.”

There are serious concerns with the legal language of the bill, and the likely ramifications for teens in case of sexual assault, rape and incest. MOAPPP will share updates as we get them. In the meantime, please check to see if your Senator is on this committee, and share your concerns about this bill and the implications for Minnesota youth.

From MOAPPP’s National Partners: Is Contraception a Code Word?

According to Sarah Brown, the CEO of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, the dearth of Republicans who are willing to support contraception is hard to understand. She notes that despite vocal opposition, she believes that many of the Republicans who “shy away from supporting birth control are actually not worried about contraception but mainly about other, larger issues.” While Brown admits that addressing these vastly more complex issues—including violence against women, child pornography and the high divorce rate—are more difficult, elected officials must consider how to address these real issues if they hope to have an impact. Ultimately she urges any legislator with a vested interest in the health of women, girls and families to stop attacking the “the life-saving, education-enhancing, health-promoting, abortion-reducing, money-saving, child-spacing, sex life-improving phenomenon of modern birth control.” Read more at www.washingtonpost.com.

Only One More Week Until the Early Registration Deadline-Register Today!

The MOAPPP Annual Conference is Minnesota’s most comprehensive training event covering current research, educational resources, policy initiatives and emerging issues related to adolescent sexual health, pregnancy prevention and support for adolescent parents. It promises to be two days filled with renowned speakers, challenging, informative, skill-building workshops and many opportunities for networking and conversation. MOAPPP is also excited to tell you that we will announce our smarter, SHORTER, teen-friendly identity at the start of the conference!

Early Registration deadline is April 15, 2011. For more information and to register, visit the MOAPPP conference page.

Last Call for Exhibitors
Join us as an exhibitor for the 20th Annual MOAPPP Conference! Visit the MOAPPP conference page for more information and an application.

Join us on Thursday, May 12 at Solera for “Wise-Up”—a celebration of MOAPPP’s Twenty Years of Guiding Adults to Empower Teens. This special evening will include great food, sensational music, fabulous live and silent auction opportunities. Be there to celebrate the retiring of MOAPPP’s name and to initiate our smarter, shorter, teen-friendly identity!

Registration for this event is now open! Tickets are $125 per person and sponsorship packages are available. To purchase a ticket or sponsorship package, click here. If you are not able to attend but would like to make a fully tax-deductible donation to MOAPPP, click here.

For additional information, contact Erin at [email protected] or 651-644-1447 x12.

Other Announcements

April is STD Awareness Month

April is STD Awareness Month, an annual observance to raise awareness about the impact of sexually transmitted diseases on the health of Americans, and the importance of individuals discussing sexual health with their healthcare providers and, if sexually active, their partners.

Visit the Minnesota Department of Health website for resources to use in your community, including posters, campaign materials and fact sheets.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month!

Get ready with tools and resources available from the Child Welfare Information Gateway. The website features:

Strengthening Families and Communities: 2011 Resource Guide—a guide to help service providers strengthen families with essentials from the key protective factors that prevent abuse (see below for more details)
Tip sheets that address particular parenting concerns or questions—in English and Spanish-to distribute to parents and caregivers
Strengthening Families April Activity Calendar—full of activities that relate to the Five Protective Factors
Child Abuse Prevention Month widgets to post on your website
A video that shows how Child Welfare Information Gateway connects professionals with information and resources on preventing child abuse and neglect

National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month

Have you started planning how your organization will promote May as National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month (NTPPM)? It is not too late! Observed each May by states and communities throughout the country, NTPPM seeks to involve communities in promoting and supporting effective teen pregnancy prevention initiatives. Visit the National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month page on the MOAPPP website for resources and ideas.

May 4, 2011
The National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Hundreds of thousands of teens nationwide are expected to participate in the tenth annual National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. For ideas on promoting the National Day, please visit the National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy page on the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy website.

For Youth

May 4, 2011
The National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy – National Quiz

Teens can support the National Day by simply visiting www.StayTeen.org on May 4 (and throughout May) and participate online by taking the National Day Quiz. The online Quiz will be posted in both English and Spanish beginning on May 1, 2011 and will be available throughout May. The National Day Quiz is appropriate for teens ages 13 and up.

New Resources

Opportunity Knocks: Using Teachable Moments to Convey Safer Sex Messages to Young People

Healthy Teen Network has made available all the resources you need to do your own Opportunity Knocks presentation. The goal of this presentation is to educate and empower youth workers, unfamiliar with the field of sexual and reproductive health, to make the most of teachable moments with the young people they serve regarding safer sex and contraceptive choices.

TECHSex USA White Paper

This report from ISIS, Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc., explores the ways technology can reach more young people with better information about sexual health. Social media, video games and mobile phones offer promise by complimenting traditional classroom and parent-child sex education. Some digital technologies allow wider reach, quicker, less expensive and more efficient communication of critical health information, and provide easy access to youth-friendly health services. The incorporation of digital technologies within a multi-pronged approach is projected to positively affect young people’s sexual and reproductive health.

Policy-Oriented Website: Focus on Results

Focusing on the results, or priorities, that we want to achieve as a nation for children and families is an approach to developing priorities that can be easily understood and embraced by the general public. Policy priorities based on evidence about achieving results then drive decisions about specific policy options, programs, practices and investment of taxpayer dollars. When policy implementation is anchored by a results framework, policymakers can track progress and make adjustments as needed to achieve better outcomes for children and families in a transparent and common-sense way. Read more at www.policyforresults.org.

Talk to Teens About Healthy Relationships

Visit this website for resources from the CDC on healthy teen relationships.

What Works for Promoting and Enhancing Positive Social Skills:
Lessons from Experimental Evaluations of Programs and Interventions

This fact sheet (PDF) created by Child Trends, includes a description and review of 38 programs that work to promote social skills among children and adolescents during out-of-school time. Focusing on domains such as getting along with others, expressing empathy, conflict resolution and regulation emotions, the fact sheet also includes charts and other supplemental materials. Charts that summarize the effectiveness of each program, and the overall findings are also included for programmatic use.

New Research

Sexual Experience and Risky Alcohol Consumption Among Incoming First-Year College Females

This study in Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse examines the relationship between sexual experience and various drinking measures in 550 incoming first-year college females. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Review of the Role of Faith- and Community-Based Organizations in Providing Comprehensive Sexuality Education

This article in the American Journal of Sexuality Education reviews the role of faith- and community-based organizations in providing comprehensive sexuality education for adolescents in the United States. This paper provides an overview of the context in which community- and faith-based organizations provide comprehensive sexuality education, the various approaches taken, and the challenges, needs and recommendations for these programs.

Sex and the Seminary: Preparing Ministers for Sexual Health and Justice

Religious traditions affirm that sexuality is God’s life-giving and life-fulfilling gift. Every member of the clergy will be called upon to address the sexuality needs of the people they serve, yet only a handful of seminaries in the United States are actively preparing their students to assume this important role. Read more about this study in American Journal of Sexuality Education.

Faith Matters: Developing the Our Whole Lives Evaluation and Promotion Project

This article in the American Journal of Sexuality Education discusses the importance of faith-based organizations implementing comprehensive sexuality education into their ministries. The study by Christian Community Inc. had a major impact in the religious community initiating a formal research evaluation of the Our Whole Lives 7th-9th grade and 10th-12th grade programs. A brief overview of the Our Whole Lives curriculum is also included.

What Do Teachers Think About Sex Education?

Pro-Choice Resources in collaboration with the University of Minnesota talked to sexuality education teachers across the state and asked them about their teaching experiences, including interactions with parents and school administrators. Read the eye opening results (PDF).

Under Lock and Key: Trauma, Marginalization, and Girls’ Juvenile Justice Involvement

This article in Justice Research and Policy explores social and legal predictors of justice involvement for female juvenile offenders. Specifically, it examines the significance of trauma and marginalization in determinants of girls’ detention and commitment as well as the formal decisions made about them.

Coercive Forms of Sexual Risk and Associated Violence Perpetrated By Male Partners of Female Adolescents

This study in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health assessed adolescent girls for physical and sexual violence perpetrated by male partners and for exposure to sexual risk factors.

Of Sex and Romance: Late Adolescent Relationships and Young Adult Union Formation

To better understand the social factors that influence the diverse pathways to family formation young adults experience today, this research investigates the association between opposite-gender relationships during late adolescence and union formation in early adulthood.

Risk and Protective Factors Distinguishing Profiles of Adolescent Peer and Dating Violence Perpetration

This study in Journal of Adolescent Health examined adolescents in grades 8 through 10 from schools in three nonmetropolitan counties. They found that adolescents who used violence against both peers and dates used more of each type of violence compared with those who used only one type of violence. They also had more maladaptive risk and protective scores than adolescents perpetrating only peer violence or neither type of violence, although they had few differences from those perpetrating only dating violence. Suggestions for developing theoretically based interventions for preventing both peer and dating violence are presented.

Adolescent Romance and Delinquency: A Further Exploration of Hirschi’s “Cold and Brittle” Relationships Hypothesis

The current analysis in Criminology explores connections between delinquency and the character of adolescent romantic ties, drawing from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study, and focusing on 957 teens with dating experience. Results suggest that delinquency is not related to perceived importance of the romantic relationship, level of intimate self-disclosure or feelings of romantic love and more delinquent youth actually report more frequent contact with their romantic partners.

The Reproductive Health of Latino Teens: What We Know and Do Not Know

Published by the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work, this research report (PDF) addresses the high rates of teen pregnancy in the Latino population, and why progress has lagged among this group despite prevention efforts.

Developmental Changes in Condom Use Among Urban Adolescent Females: Influence of Partner Context

In this study from Journal of Adolescent Health, a clinic sample of 298 African American female adolescents aged 14-19 years at enrollment were interviewed every 6 months for a period of 36 months. On average, there was no statistically significant change in condom use over time. The odds of having a single main partner increased by 4 percent for each six months spent in the study. Data suggest that longitudinal changes in condom use are a function of developmental changes in relationships, whereby young women trend toward monogamous relationships.

How Do Adolescents View Health? Implications for State Health Policy

For this study in Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers conducted eight adolescent focus groups in geographically and culturally diverse regions of Indiana. Participants described health as a shared responsibility between adolescents and adults in their lives. Respect for decision-making capacity, seeking adolescent input and providing harm reduction messages were identified as particularly important.

The “Ins” and “Outs” of Provider-Parent Communication: Perspectives from Adolescent Primary Care Providers on Challenges to Forging Alliances to Reduce Adolescent Risk

This study in Journal of Adolescent Health identified individual and structural barriers and facilitators to involving parents in their adolescents’ primary care.

Religiosity as a Protective Factor Against HIV Risk Among Young Transgender Women

A study in Journal of Adolescent Health of 92 young transgender women indicated that formal religious practices may attenuate sexual risk-taking behaviors and therefore HIV risk.

MOAPPP Events

Early Registration deadline is April 15, 2011. For more information and to register, visit the MOAPPP conference page.

MOAPPP’s 20th Anniversary Event

Join us on Thursday, May 12th at Solera for “Wise-Up”—a celebration of MOAPPP’s Twenty Years of Guiding Adults to Empower Teens. This special evening will include great food, sensational music, and fabulous live and silent auction opportunities. Be there to celebrate the retiring of MOAPPP’s name and to initiate our smarter, shorter, teen-friendly identity!

For additional information, contact Erin at [email protected] or 651-644-1447 x12.

June 21, 2011
Teen Pregnancy Prevention 101

9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Center for Performing Arts
3754 Pleasant Avenue, Minneapolis

This training is offered twice a year at various locations across Minnesota.

This training is intended for professionals new to the field of adolescent pregnancy prevention. Participants review the basics of adolescent pregnancy prevention including pregnancy, birth and STI statistics; trends in adolescent pregnancy and sexual behaviors; basics of adolescent growth and development; risk and protective factors associated with adolescent pregnancy; and prevention strategies that work. Each participant will leave with a basic understanding of current research and resources, what to do to promote adolescent sexual health and where to go for more information and support.

For more information and to register, see the flyer and registration form (PDF) Attached. Click here to register online. Questions? Contact Jocelyn at 651-644-1447 x19, [email protected].

Other Events

April 6, 2011
2010 Sexually Transmitted Data Release

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Dial-in number: 1-888-742-5095
Conference Code: 3192776590
To join the Webex, go to https://health-state-mn-ustraining.webex.com

Staff from the Minnesota Department of Health will provide an overview of the updated trends of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, as well as have presentations regarding programmatic responses to address these trends. The presentation will be recorded and posted online for future viewing.

April 9, 2011
Let’s Talk About Sex Film

9:00 p.m. CST
Cable Television’s TLC

This film features interviews with teens, parents, health experts, faith leaders and others, and presents a “new vision for shifting our approach to young people and sexual health in the United States,” according to the filmmakers. Their hope is that the film will be a “catalyst and a tool to initiate healthy conversations in kitchens and classrooms across the country.” Visit the film’s website for more information, to sign up to host a viewing party in your community, or to order the DVD.

April 12, 2011
Announcing the Minnesota Chlamydia Strategy

9:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Mississippi Room, Snelling Office Park
1645 Energy Park Drive, Saint Paul

Staff from the Minnesota Department of Health and volunteers from across the state have contributed to the creation of the first-ever Strategy for Reducing and Preventing Chlamydia in Minnesota. On April 12, the Minnesota Chlamydia Partnership (MCD) will unveil the Strategy and discuss the recommendations from the workgroups. No registration required BUT seating is limited to first 140 people. Metro area residents encouraged to attend in Saint Paul. Webinar with audio available for first 150 people in Greater Minnesota. For more information, visit www.health.state.mn.us/mcp.

April 14, 2011
Assuring Access: Meeting the Sexual Health Needs of Homeless Youth

6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Temple Israel
2324 Emerson Avenue South, Minneapolis

All young people deserve access to quality sexual health information and services. Assuring access looks different, however, when trying to meet the needs of youth on the street. Come hear Bill Smith, Executive Director of the National Coalition of STD Directors share what’s going on in Washington to ensure all young people have access to the information and care they need. Mr. Smith will describe policies and practices that either support or hinder access and highlight implications unique to homeless youth. His presentation will be followed by a lively discussion with a panel of Minnesota experts.

For more information, view the flyer (PDF) and to register, click here.

This event is funded in part by a grant from the Ford Foundation and is sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women, Minneapolis in collaboration with a newly formed coalition of providers and advocates.

April 26, 2011
Prevention Forum: Risk, Protective Factors for Youth in ALC and Correctional Facilities

12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Council Chambers, St. Louis Park City Hall
5005 Minnetonka Blvd., St. Louis Park

Danette Buskovick from the Minnesota Statistical Analysis Center will compare 2010 Minnesota Student Survey responses of youth in Minnesota Alternative Learning Centers (ALCs) and correctional facilities to a matched sample of youth from mainstream schools. Risk and protective factors discussed will include alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use; victimization; mental health indicators; school connectedness; and family relationships.

May 11, 2011
Youth Development Brown Bag Webinar Series

“Communicating with the Net Generation,” Kari Robideau, M.S. & Karyn Santi, M.Ed.

Extension Services of North Dakota State University and the University of Minnesota are partnering to offer a series of six webinars on youth development topics. Each webinar will provide live, interactive learning experiences that you can participate in at your own computer over the lunch hour. Participants are able to ask the instructor questions and get answers in real time while the presenter conducts discussions, questions and polls. For more information and to register, visit www.ndsu.edu.