SpringfieldNewsSun.com

We read the headlines — "U. S. Teen Births Rise" (Associated Press, December 2007), "1 in 4 Teen Girls Has STD" (News-Sun, March 2008), "Clark Leads in Unwed Moms" (News-Sun, February 2008), "Sex Education Needs to be More Effective" (News-Sun, April 2008) — and we wonder: What does it all mean? How should we respond? Can we be doing more? Should we be doing it differently?

The Community Hospital Health Services Foundation is taking the lead in organizing the community to address these questions and more. We have called together a collaborative of more than a dozen local youth- and family-serving organizations for the purpose of improving adolescent sexual health in Clark and Champaign counties. We believe accurate information and open, honest communication about sexuality is essential to healthy communities.

Now we wish to open the conversation to the whole community. We have invited Barbara Huberman of Advocates for Youth to share information about The New 3Rs — Rights, Respect, Responsibility — a conceptual framework we can use to guide the conversation, and upon which we can hang programs, projects, policies and curricula.

If we as a community choose to adopt the New 3Rs principles, we will have committed to a positive youth-development approach that says:

• Teens have the right to accurate and complete sexuality information and access to sexual health services.

• Teens deserve respect as partners in prevention with much to offer, and should not be seen merely as part of the problem.

• Teens can act responsibly, make the link between sexuality and values, and can protect their own health and that of others. Teens can be trusted to make responsible decisions when they are provided information, taught skills and given support to do so.

We can change the headlines if we ...

• Encourage strong decision-making skills by providing youth with age-appropriate opportunities to make decisions, to experience the consequences of those decisions, and to learn from mistakes;

• Provide youth with safe places and opportunities to discuss relationships, intimacy, love and commitment;

• Encourage youth to talk with their parents about sexuality; and educate parents so they can be comfortable talking to their children about sex, love and commitment;

• Discuss explicitly with preadolescents and teens the value of delaying sexual initiation and the importance of love and intimacy;

• Teach abstinence, but also share information about contraception and safer sex practices;

• Encourage youth to identify their personal, family, community and religious values related to sexual health;

• Encourage research-based, medically accurate sexuality education;

• Involve youth in planning, designing and implementing realistic and comprehensive sexuality education programs?

Can we change the headlines if we involve faith communities and faith-based organizations, parents and schools in a dialogue that respects the values of all traditions and perspectives?

Community Hospital Health Services and the Clark/Champaign Reproductive Health Education Collaborative believe we can do better. We invite you to share your views and experience with us from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 8, at 105 Shouvlin Center for Lifelong Learning, Wittenberg University, when we present The New 3Rs: Rights, Respect, Responsibility. Call (937) 328-9704 or contact us from our Web site, www.communityhospitalfoundation.org.

Faye Flack is

e

xecutive

d

irector of

the

Community Hospital Health Services Foundation.

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