Benchmark - Research Proposal Final Paper

STARTING OUT RIGHT. 4

Starting Out Right.

Jeanete Freesene

GCU

SOC-480

Professor Jones

04/24/2021

Starting Out Right.

Starting Out Right for Teen Parents (SORTP) is a program that provides expectant and parenting youth with an innovative combination of pre-natal and post-natal supports, such as case management, pregnancy, and parenting education classes, home visits, and a companion mobile app, to increase their protective factors and reduce the risk of rapid repeat pregnancy. The project's goals are to increase the protective factors of the participants and decrease participants' risk factors for rapid repeat pregnancy, to provide participants with a high level of support during the first 6 months after childbirth, to integrate case management and pregnancy education services into the medical home model, and to use digital technology to increase participants' access to health education.

The program entails pregnant adolescents who have unique challenges and needs. The willing participants receive guidance and assistance to achieve a healthy pregnancy accompanied by a healthy newborn. The program educates the expecting mother on her pregnancy health and wellness, labor and delivery, breastfeeding, birth control, healthy relationships, and newborn care and safety among many other services. The program also offers effective facilitation techniques to engage adolescents and strategic methods that maximize their learning and comprehension.

Since 1990, Arizona Youth Partnership (AZYP) has been recognized as a leader in Arizona for its expertise in providing prevention and community-building resources to help youth grow into healthy, self-sufficient adults. Starting Out Right (SOR) is a community-based health education and supportive services program for pregnant and parenting young people aged 21 and under in Gila, Pima, and Maricopa Counties. Healthy pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, and healthy relationship and lifestyle classes, as well as an interactive mobile application, are all part of health education. For about 5 years, the Starting Out Right (SOR) program has collaborated with the Diaper Bank of Southern Arizona. Their commitment to providing emergency diapers in the Tucson community, particularly to SOR clients, has a significant impact on the high-risk population that Starting Out Right serves.

The program is on the right path of reaching out to people since it has closed all gaps between the needed services and those that are provided. The agency through this program has achieved to effectively meet the needs of pregnant teenagers for more than 15 years. The program has extensively addressed the teenage pregnancy issues among the citizens of Arizona counties and has extended the same idea to different states in the United States which have adopted the same ideas in helping to reduce teenage pregnancies and taking care of the recent cases of teenage pregnancies in their respective states.

According to the collected data by Arizona Youth Partnership (AZYP), 103 pregnant and parenting youth participated in the Starting Out Right campaign, where they received pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, and healthy life skills education, as well as individualized case management services from Gila, Pima, and Maricopa County Health Educators. 63 healthy babies were born into this world where 50 were breastfeeding at the time of discharge from the hospital and only six were admitted to the NICU.

Starting Out Right campaign provides teen-specific, unbiased facilitation that is based on brain-based learning principles and assists adolescents in making sense of pregnancy and parenting class material. Starting Out Right facilitators provide best practices and medically accurate information to clients to help them make decisions during pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period. Recently, AZYP presented its program curriculum at several conferences which were well received.

The program analysis of the Starting Out Right for teen parents program by the Arizona Youth Program is of great help and reference point as I design my program to fill in the gap of educating the parents about teenage pregnancy issues. As the program will extensively reach out to teenagers to help in data collection, the parents should also be educated on the best ways to support their child. The program will include training to the parent of pregnant teenagers to educate them on how to deal with their children considering their situation. Some parents may tend to be harsh on their children which stress the pregnant teens which may cause miscarriage cases or stillbirths. Though it is not ethically acceptable for children of age 21 and younger to engage in sexual activities, the parent should be educated on the best way to react and deal with the issue hence supporting the teen.

The program will also establish the best techniques to be deployed to reduce teenage pregnancies around the state considering Arizona is ranked the 5th worst in the nation due to the condition of their children and families. The program will help in the development and evaluation of new and innovative approaches to prevent teenage pregnancy which is on the rise at an alarming rate. To reduce disparities in teen pregnancy and birth rates, the program is intended to reach adolescents aged 10 to 19, with a focus on populations with the greatest need.

References.

PEDERSEN, L. (2021, April 14). Starting out Right teen pregnancy CURRICULUM: ARIZONA Youth Partnership. Retrieved April 19, 2021, from https://azyp.org/program/conferenceattendeesor/#

Melcher, M. S. (2012). Pregnancy, motherhood, and choice in twentieth-century Arizona.