 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Ernestine Stevenson, RN MS FNP, Neighborhood Initiatives, Community Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3424 S. State Street Room 409, Chicago, IL 60616, 312-9490277, esteve1@uic.edu
Adolescent girls from low income, minority families, are at an elevated risk for early sexual behavior jeopardizing their health and academic success. A unique partnership of the University of Illinois at Chicago Neighborhoods Initiative, Division of Community Health and the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School of Chicago (YWLCS) has been formed to reduce sexual risk taking behavior. The partnership creates a community-based, prevention based, action-oriented health education initiative called Beating the Odds (BEAT). The target population is comprised of 327 girls in grades 7-12, over 80 percent from ethnic minorities—66% African American, 15% Latina, 1% Asian and 1% Mixed Heritage. BEAT employs three main strategies to achieve its goals: Education, Individual Action Plans and Preventive Health Care. BEAT is comprised of a Tri-Modal Team with an experienced health educator, medical professionals and a social worker. All students who access the Health Care Services are screened for high-risk behaviors using the AMA’s Guidelines for Adolescent Preventive Services (GAPS) questionnaire. This data is used to identify students with high-risk behaviors and track them for progress with preventive education and treatment interventions. The evaluation of the program’s effectiveness will be based on the number of students achieving 70% or better in performance outcomes, anonymous surveys modeled on the Youth Behavior Risk factors Surveillance Questionnaire, and chart review of Preventative Health Care Flow Sheets.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adolescent Health, Sexual Behavior
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.