Each year, the Texas Campaign recognizes exceptional individuals and organizations working to improve adolescent health outcomes for Texas Teens. 

Nominations for Rising Star, Community Partner, and Changemaker are currently open for the 2021 Symposium, and will be accepted through August 31, 2021.

The Texas Is Ready Coalition team is currently analyzing data to determine areas of most need for high quality sex ed based on teen birth rates and STI rates. The team will deploy targeted outreach efforts in those areas to build local coalition capacity to advocate for high quality sex ed.

The Texas Campaign is collaborating with the UT School of Public Health to update the iCHAMPSS online tool, an extensive resource that guides school districts through the process of selecting, implementing, and maintaining health education curriculum. The updates will reflect statutory changes and curriculum standards updates, as well as usability updates.

Finally, the Texas Is Ready original partners will reconvene regular meetings, in addition to meetings held for the larger collaborative body. The partners have decided to expand partnerships in the Texas Is Ready Coalition to ensure that there are as many supporters as possible for Texas School Districts. The goal is to coordinate our efforts and avoid duplication. The partners are working to launch a survey to be used to create a service directory that districts can use when looking for support.

The TYFI leadership team has launched a TYFI Cohort 4 application, with the goal of recruiting 6 - 8 participating clinics that operate within the 57-county service area of the Episcopal Health Foundation. Cohort 4 will be required to select sexual and reproductive health as an area on which to focus their service improvement efforts. Other areas of focus may include adolescent involvement and empowerment, cultural responsiveness, community engagement and responsiveness, as well as an adolescent appropriate environment.

Since 2013, the evidence-based Adolescent Champion Model has been implemented in nearly 100 health centers around the country, including 16 TYFI clinic sites which were certified as ‘Adolescent Centered Environments’.

Clinics that participated in the pilot phase in Texas reported:

• 40% increase in practice of same-day access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC);
• 10% increase in HPV vaccination completion rates; and
• 91% of clinicians report that staff provide fair treatment to all adolescents.
  

Clinics also reported increases in respectful treatment, parent engagement, cultural responsiveness, behavioral health clinical practices, and confidentiality according to patient and provider feedback.

Each participating clinic site receives a mini-grant of up to $10,000 to support implementation of their improvement plans. 

Applications will be accepted until September 10, 2021, selected clinics will be notified by September 20, 2021, and the program will begin in October 2021. 

We have started scheduling Brave Conversations training for adults that work with youth in the child welfare system and their caregivers. For more information, download the flyer here. 

Many people think of teen births as a big city phenomenon -- but in Texas, and in many other places, teen birth is much more common per capita in rural communities.

In Texas, the teen birth rate in large metropolitan areas is twice as high as the teen birth rate in small towns -- about 20 per 1,000 teens in "big cities," compared to about 40 per 1,000 in areas considered "small towns." Teens living in rural areas or small towns may face barriers in accessing contraception or medically accurate sex education. Additionally, high teen birth rates may correlate with a perceived lack of economic opportunity.

We're working hard to ensure that all Texas teens, no matter where they live, have access to the information and resources they need for healthy futures.

Data Notes: This chart shows the teen birth rate in two types of Texas counties, based on Rural-Urban Continuum Codes developed by the US Department of Agriculture.

"Big cities" -- defined as counties in metropolitan areas of 1 million population or more. For example, this includes Travis County (Austin), as well as some smaller surrounding counties that are part of the metroplex, such as Hays and Williamson.

"Small towns" -- defined as counties with an urban population of 2,500 to 19,999, not adjacent to a metro area. This includes counties such as Childress and Moore in the panhandle or Anderson County in east Texas.

The Back to School season is here, and it is time to refresh students who are pregnant or parenting on their rights, protected under Title IX. Healthy Teen Network has provided English and Spanish posters, wallet cards, and social media posts.