NCJ Number
186024
Date Published
April 2000
Length
112 pages
Annotation
This document reports on a community project to protect teens from pregnancy and disease.
Abstract
Plain Talk is a unique and controversial approach to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention. It is unique in enlisting participation by a broad cross section of community adults and controversial in focusing on the needs of sexually active youth. This report briefly reviews the participating sites, strategies used to recruit resident participation, overcome cultural barriers, and create and sustain consensus within core groups of residents; community-education strategies; how residents were trained to disseminate the Plain Talk message; how the dissemination strategies worked and sometimes changed the message as it was delivered; the delivery of workshops and the effectiveness of residents as lay health educators; residents' informal education efforts; and attempts to collaborate with other institutions. The report observes that community initiatives are time consuming and arduous. The 3 years of the Plain Talk initiative was enough to glean rich information about a range of implementation issues but not enough to watch the full unfolding of a community change initiative. Tables, notes, references, appendixes