 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Jeannine Long, MPH, Office of Family Planning, California Department of Health Services, 714 P Street, Room 440, Sacramento, CA 95814, 916-654-0363, jlong1@dhs.ca.gov, Anna Ramirez, MPH, Office of Family Planning, State of California Department of Health Services, 714 P Street #440, Sacramento, CA 95814, Rosanna Westmoreland, MA, c/o Office of Family Planning, Runyon, Saltzman & Einhorn, Inc., 714 P Street, Room 440, Sacramento, CA 95814, and Phyllis Tucker, International Public Relations/Public Affairs, Hill and Knowlton, Inc., 6500 Wilshire Boulevard, 21st Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90048.
In 2002, California expanded on the California Department of Health Services (CA/DHS) teen pregnancy prevention media campaign, “It’s Up to Me,” to include the development and launch of www.itsuptome.org, an interactive new website. California’s media campaign is a comprehensive advertising, public relations and outreach effort that consists of four components – teen responsibility, responsibility, clinical services/Family PACT and Adult Involvement. The website supports these components by communicating teen pregnancy prevention messages to California’s youth, males, adults and community-based organizations in an interactive, educational and fun way. Additionally, the website is intended to distribute information about campaign activities and educational materials to teens, males and adults. In order to encourage and promote the utilization of www.itsuptome.org to local communities and schools, the CA/DHS developed several elements to the website: interactive activities, printable and downloadable information and resources, pregnancy prevention links to other websites and a state referral system to local community resources. A website teaching curriculum was also developed to guide educators on how to use each channel of the website as a valuable tool for educating those they serve about teen pregnancy prevention and related issues. Currently, the average number of hits to the website, per month, totals over 3,500. In the first year, the www.itsuptome.org website had a total of 47,159 hits. The website continues to be reviewed and updated to provide new interactive games for teens, to encourage revisits to the site, along with the addition of new teen pregnancy prevention resources and campaign materials.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Adolescent Health
Related Web page: www.itsuptome.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.