Since 2015, the Workplace of Inhabitants Affairs (OPA) has been proud to spearhead Nationwide Teen Being pregnant Prevention Month, an annual observance every Might that started greater than twenty years in the past with a day of motion led by advocates to focus on our collective accountability to handle the excessive charges of unintended being pregnant amongst teenagers. Our nation has made vital progress over the past 20 years, and younger folks themselves have led the way in which, serving to redefine for us all how we will and may help adolescent well being and wellbeing throughout this vital part of life. In recognition of our renewed and expanded dedication, we’re proud to announce that the Might observance has been renamed Nationwide Adolescent Well being Month, or NAHM.
We consider phrases matter, and renaming the observance is rooted in 4 main realities. First, we wish to replicate the adolescent well being subject’s shift in focus away from stigmatizing teen being pregnant and younger folks’s danger habits. Second, we see this observance as a chance to focus on the significance of constructing investments in adolescent well being utilizing an asset-based, constructive youth improvement method. Third, a long time of public well being work have led to declines within the prevalence of sweet sixteen being pregnant and it’s vital to broaden the aperture to acknowledge the vary of adolescent well being wants that benefit our nationwide engagement. Lastly, OPA grantees, federal colleagues, advocates and different stakeholders within the adolescent well being subject requested us to alter the title and focus of the observance. We listened!
OPA went by a rigorous course of to solicit enter and suggestions from HHS workers and exterior companions, together with interviews with HHS workers and a survey of OPA grantees, varied federal company workers, State Adolescent Well being Coordinators, youth-serving professionals, adolescent healthcare suppliers, public well being teams, advocates, dad and mom, and youth. In the end, the method led us to the brand new title and 4 weekly themes for this 12 months’s observance:
- Week 1: Empower youth with sexual and reproductive well being info and providers
- Week 2: Help psychological well being and effectively being
- Week 3: Encourage bodily well being and wholesome decision-making
- Week 4: Maintain equitable, accessible, youth-friendly providers
We launched the brand new observance final week and will likely be celebrating all through the month of Might. Our devoted NAHM webpages options details about a number of OPA Title X household planning and Teen Being pregnant Prevention (TPP) grantees, shareable pattern tweets, social media graphics, and e-newsletter and weblog textual content with key information about OPA grantees’ work to advertise adolescent well being. It additionally contains hyperlinks to assets from the Reproductive Well being Nationwide Coaching Middle and to movies on the OPA YouTube channel. Every week we’ll submit extra assets that associated to the weekly theme and spotlight the work of our grantees and federal companions.
Keep tuned within the second half of Might for 2 Twitter Takeover days, when younger folks from two of OPA’s Teen Being pregnant Prevention packages will take over the OPA Twitter feed with their posts. We hope you’ll retweet them and amplify youth voices talking about adolescent well being. And all through the month TPP grantee youth will ship us authentic paintings, poetry, music, images and essays that we’ll submit on the OPA web site later this 12 months as a part of Youth Create! 2022. You’ll be able to see a video compilation of final 12 months’s Youth Create! exercise right here.
I invite you to hitch me in getting concerned in NAHM 2022 – right here’s how one can take part:
- Go to the webpage to seek out assets and study our featured OPA grantees
- Obtain, customise, and share our pattern social media graphics and posts
- Retweet and Quote tweet OPA utilizing #NationalAdolescentHealthMonth and #HealthyYouthNAHM
- Amplify youth voice by retweeting grantee youth on OPA’s Twitter Takeover Days
- Inform us about your NAHM actions and posts
Be taught extra on the OPA Nationwide Adolescent Well being Month webpage.