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Vegas goal: Keep teen pregnancy program alive

Supporters called Thursday to keep alive and expand a program that works to reduce teen pregnancy rates among African-American girls in Southern Nevada.

The Southern Nevada Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program at UNLV’s Center for Health Disparities Research was funded with about $2.8 million for five years in 2010 by the Office of Adolescent Health, said Melva Thompson-Robinson, associate professor and executive director of the center. The program entered its fifth year Sept. 1.

“The project may go away … Aug. 31, 2015, if we don’t get refunded, but the issues will not go away,” Thompson-Robinson told women at a luncheon. “My challenge to you is … what are you going to do about it? You can be with us and you can help us, and united we can do better, or we can be fragmented and things (will) not go anywhere.”

Nevada remains in the top 10 for the highest teen pregnancy rates, according to the Southern Nevada Health District. In 2010, the Silver State’s pregnancy rate was 68 per 1,000 teen girls.

Thompson-Robinson said officials plan to reapply for the competitive funding in January but just in case are looking at how the program can continue with limited resources.

“We kind of feel like it can be done with limited funding, and we are just trying to find out what that might look like to be able to tell organizations that are interested,” she said.

Program leaders are trying to attract community organizations that might be interested in collaborating. Currently, the Becoming a Responsible Teen program is delivered to youth 14 to 19 years of age through African-American faith-based organizations that become committed to participating, Thompson-Robinson said. The program assigns instructors who are paid employees through UNLV to teach the program at the sites.

But they are looking to expand the program to organizations that are not faith-based.

The event Thursday “is part of starting to bring up that support and start having that conversation, as well as in the event we don’t get funded, people know about the project and maybe can support us in some way,” she said.

In the past four years, about 400 youths have completed at least 75 percent of the nine-week intervention program, Thompson-Robinson said. And the program has touched about 700 teens.

“Given the extent of the problem here in Southern Nevada, we feel like we’ve done a really good job,” she said.

Through the program, officials have been able to train more than 80 instructors in the community. About 25 to 30 of them are active instructors who teach the program at the various faith-based organization sites.

Since the program began, 30 faith-based organizations have joined the efforts.

Hydeia Broadbent, who was born with HIV and at 3 years old was diagnosed with AIDS, works with the program.

The 30-year-old, born and raised in Las Vegas, said there’s a misconception that the program promotes sex. She said it’s about giving youths the tools they need to be safe if they choose to have sex. Pregnancies, HIV and AIDS are preventable.

“The reality is, and the numbers show, that the kids are not waiting,” said Broadbent, who travels across the country to talk to youths about the realities and struggles of living with AIDS.

State Sen. Patricia Spearman, D-North Las Vegas, said a bill has been drafted to offer comprehensive health education in the state’s schools to include all aspects of personal health.

Contact Yesenia Amaro at yamaro@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440. Find her on Twitter: @YeseniaAmaro.

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