Affecting Michigan's Public Policy on Teen Pregnancy

"Best Practices"

Community Engagement

• Develop a shared sense of community ownership of the problem
  
  
• Collect information about community needs, perspectives, and desires
  
  
• Develop relationships
  
  
• Embrace diversity
  
  
• Plan Together

Multiple Strategies

• Use a wide variety of programs and approaches (from school curricula to media campaigns to youth activities)
  
  
• Respond to multiple perspectives--there is no single "best" approach
  
  
• Address youth at different ages/stages
  
  
• Coordinate strategies to create a continuum of efforts

Sustainability

• Prevention is a never-ending effort
  
  
• Develop structures and technologies to sustain community engagement, commitment and attention
  
  
• Institutionalize strategies
  

Evaluation

• Gather data on the effects of strategies
  
  
• Maintain a feedback loop between participants and larger community
  
  
• Understand level of community engagement
  
  
• Learn whether effort is preventing teen pregnancies

Last updated: 2/4/03

University of Michigan Global Program on Youth, School of Social Work Building, Room 3743
1080 South University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106 ssw.global@umich.edu

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

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