LatinaLista — It’s estimated that 52 percent of Latinas will become pregnant at least once by age 20. While the Latina teen pregnancy rates have actually fallen and are at their lowest levels in years, unfortunately, Latina teen birth and pregnancy rates are still almost twice the national average.
As a result, many communities and families still find themselves struggling to combat the challenge of Latina teens having children. Yet, there are pockets of hope around the country.
Latina Lista has reported on in the past communities, schools, private organizations that have created effective programs that help parents talk to their daughters about sex, keep Latina teens from becoming mothers before their time and giving Latino teens the education and incentive to stay in school and not engage in risky sexual behavior.
The trouble with all these good programs is that news of them rarely travel outside that local community. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy wants parents, educators, teens, counselors and faith leaders to know about these programs — no matter where they live.
So, recently the National Campaign launched the Latino Resource Center.
Divided into six sections: Groups working with parents; Groups working with teens; Faith leaders; Effective programs; Parents and Teens, the site draws from established content already found on the National Campaign web site to contributions from communities on programs developed locally and are having a positive impact on the local Latino teen pregnancy challenge.
The site has factsheets and discussion guides to download, videos to watch and/or purchase and a searchable database of effective programs, screened by the staff at the National Campaign, that everyone can review.
Content on the site is available in both English and Spanish, and since it’s a resource center developers of the site look to continually add to it as they get news of what is working to keep on lowering a statistic that holds too many young people back from achieving their potential.
