Milwaukee teen birthrate drops 50% in 7 years after city efforts, By Karen Herzog, October 23, 2013, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s teen birthrate has dropped by 50% over the past seven years — surpassing by three years and 4 percentage points a goal set by one of the most ambitious teen pregnancy prevention initiatives in the nation, city officials announced Wednesday. The 2012 teen birthrate marks a historic low for the city: 25.76 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17, down 50% from seven years prior, when the rate was 52 births per 1,000 females in that age group. The initiative grew out of concerns that children born to teen mothers are more likely to become teen parents themselves and are more likely to drop out of school, tap into public assistance or go to jail. The city and a group of community partners set a goal in 2008 to reduce Milwaukee’s teen births by 46% over 10 years (2006-’15), to 30 births per 1,000 females ages 15 to 17…”
Tag: Teen pregnancy
Homelessness Among Teen Parents – Massachusetts
- New report finds 30 percent of teen parents in Massachusetts have been homeless, By Shira Schoenberg, September 10, 2013, The Republican: “Jasmin Colon, who works for the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy, grew up in Florida, with a mother who was in an abusive relationship. Colon helped raise her handicapped brothers. She got kicked out of her house and moved to Massachusetts at age 16, then got pregnant. ‘I was terrified. I didn’t know where I was going to live, how I’d support my son,’ Colon said. Colon said she turned to state agencies for help, but felt stigmatized by some of the providers that were supposed to support her. She moved in with her son’s father and his family. ‘It’s so important for people to understand there are underlying issues when people become young parents, get exploited or become homeless,’ Colon said…”
- Report makes links between abuse, homelessness among teen parents, By Michael P. Norton, September 10, 2013, Patriot Ledger: “Thirty percent of pregnant and parenting teens in Massachusetts were homeless at some point during the past fiscal year and almost 10 percent of teen parents who were homeless had been subject to commercial sexual exploitation, according to a report released Tuesday. The authors of the Massachusetts Alliance on Teen Pregnancy report say it ‘exposes the cascade of trauma’ facing homeless teen parents, finding 59 percent of teen parents who had been homeless had been physically or emotionally abused or neglected by a caregiver and 27 percent had been sexually abused. Researchers cited lack of family support, teens raising siblings, and teens being kicked out by caregivers as reasons for teen homelessness…”
US Teen Birth Rate
Teen birth rates dip in all but 2 states, national figure at record low, CDC report says, By Mike Stobbe (AP), May 23, 2013, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The nation’s record-low teen birth rate stems from robust declines in nearly every state, but most dramatically in several Mountain States and among Hispanics, according to a new government report. All states but West Virginia and North Dakota showed significant drops over five years. But the Mountain States of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Utah saw rates fall by 30 percent or more…”