REACH Summit educates Houston area parents and teens
On May 2nd, teens and their parents from across the city of Houston came to participate in the first annual REACH Summit, an event to raise awareness about teen pregnancy prevention. Planned and executed by the youth members of teenREACH, the Summit created a space where young people and parents discussed and explored ways to make better decisions about relationships, sexuality, and their futures. Participants had a fun and educational day with practical facts and straight talk from their peers.
The event featured entertainment from local youth rapper J. Xavier, along with vendors, panel discussions, HIV testing, and workshops for teens, parenting teens, and adults. Some workshop topics included: “Method Man” – an informational session about the myths and truths of contraception, “Real Life, Real Talk” - a workshop led by parenting teens telling the truth about the legal, economic and emotional side of being a teen parent, and “How to Talk to in your Family About Sex” - a workshop for parents about how to lead “the talk” in the family home.
teenREACH is a diverse group of teens between the ages of 13 and 19 from the greater Houston area committed to the health issues affecting their peers. teenREACH advocates for age appropriate, medically accurate sex education and an open dialogue to help young people make life sustaining healthy decisions. teenREACH believes Real Education and Advocacy Changes Health [REACH]. This year’s inaugural REACH Summit emerged from the teenREACH members’ awareness and concern that their peers were not getting medically accurate facts from their schools. The advocates of teenREACH sought to create a space where young people could come to get the real information about sexual health without shame or limitations.
The 2009 REACH Summit was underwritten by the University of Texas Prevention Research Center and co-sponsored by Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, Baylor College of Medicine Teen Health Clinic, ChildBuilders, the Council on Alcohol and Drugs, Communities in Schools, Houston Department of Health and Human Services, One Voice, Planned Parenthood of Houston Southeast Texas, and the YWCA. Many thanks to these organizations for their role in helping the Summit become a reality!
The bad news
As is common at the end of the legislative session, several good bills sex education bills have died. The deadline for committees to report out bills passed Tuesday. Unfortunately, HB 741, the Education Works Act, and HB 1567, Rep. Villarreal's bill requiring that information about contraceptives be medically accurate, were both left pending in committee.
The good news
SB 591, by Sen. Van de Putte, which would create a small pilot teen pregnancy prevention program in Bexar County, still has a chance to pass. This bill would provide grant funding for a local organization to implement the Teen Outreach Program (TOP) in the San Antonio area. TOP, a youth development program that combines services learning with classroom activities, is one of the most effective teen pregnancy programs around. A successful pilot program will help build the case for more such programs statewide. We'll keep you updated as this progresses.
And there's good news even amidst the bad. One of the biggest hurdles to establishing good sex education and teen pregnancy prevention programs is educating legislators on the issues. We know many of you called, emailed, and visited legislators to tell them about the Education Works Act and various other bills that would make sex education in Texas medically accurate and improve youth development opportunities around the state. Even when bills don't pass, that effort is not wasted - it makes things easier next time around.