Posted Date: June 25, 2008
Girls' Mentoring Program Helps Teens Avoid Pregnancy
By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide
Although many experts nationwide are not sure why the teen pregnancy rate is dropping nationwide, Virginia Hatten seems to know why.
In fact she recently sat on the front row smiling at a high school commencement, as 17 of the 21 young women she’d mentored as middle schoolers walked across the stage to receive high school diplomas. In middle school, each of the recent high school graduates joined the Elite Ladies Cultural Club Etiquette Program.
“Many are coming from the projects in the south Norfolk area of Chesapeake,” said Hatten, 46, a Chesapeake-area teacher’s assistant who started her esteem,-building and pregnancy-prevention program almost six years ago as an after-school activity for 21 middle school girls. “What I do know is they’re seeking love, affirmation, and approval.”
“The AIDS epidemic is on the rise in some parts of this area,” Hatten continued, pointing to several other reasons why teen pregnancy is a popular issue. Many teens get pregnant because of peer pressure, low incomes, low expectations, lack of parental control, or ignorance about birth control.
Although experts use an even longer list to explain teen pregnancy, Hatten said the teen pregnancy rate has declined in recent years on her watch because she earns her students’ trust. Plus, she truly cares about each student.
She started her program during the time when the teen pregnancy rates declined in the U.S. from 1990 to 2004, as did the number of abortions.
Specifically, teen pregnancy rates dropped from 15 to 12 percent during that period, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control.
Unlike entertainer Bill Cosby, who caused a near-crisis when he decided to do something about the black-teen-pregnancy-rate--which stood at 37 percent--Hatten has driven the numbers down, without scaring people to death.
The point is that Cosby, Hatten, and many other people in the African American community have rolled up their sleeves and gone to work after studying the statistics, according to June Carbone, a Santa Clara University researcher, who authored a recent article titled, The Secret Behind Lower Teen Pregnancy.
“The secret is the determination of the African American community to combat teen births, and the success that concerted community action has had in transforming child-bearing behavior,” Carbone wrote.
“I discovered the secret when I attended a conference on welfare reform at Columbia University. These leaders saw teen births as the single biggest challenge in the African American community, and they were devoting their energy to meeting that challenge. The good news is that they have had remarkable success.”
Specifically, teen birth rates are now near historic lows. The overall rate fell 26 percent in the 1990s, according to U.S. Census figures. The far more dramatic figure for African Americans was 37 percent, compared to 26 percent for the rest of the population, during that period.
Still about 27 percent of all teenage mothers were African American in 1997, when celebrities such as Jesse Jackson, Bill Clinton and even gangsta rappers decided to get involved.
”It’s time we acknowledge their existence,” Carbone continued. “The community efforts to change attitudes toward teen childbearing are rarely part of the story.”
The big story is that the teen pregnancy rate has steadily dropped everywhere, including South Hampton Roads. In Norfolk, the number of teen pregnancies dropped from 875 in 2005 to 783 in 2006. In fact, Virginia has the 22nd lowest teen pregnancy rate among 50 states, according to state documents.
Hatten said the secret to getting results is to focus on a teen’s decision-making skills. Let them know you care, and you’re trustworthy. Moreover, provide answers about contraception, and changing attitudes about childbearing at a young age.
“I was tired of seeing teen pregnancies,” Hatten said. “So, I founded the Elite Ladies Cultural Club Etiquette Program. The point was to teach young ladies how to conduct themselves as young ladies and to aid them in preventing pregnancy.”
Hatten, who was 12 years old when her own father abandoned her nine siblings and her mother, said she understands how it feels to be young and confused.
Although she describes her own mother, Agenora Taylor, as her “mentor and friend”--she still remembers the sting. When the door slammed shut, her identity was just bursting into bloom.
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