Uncovering New Initiatives for Teen Empowerment (UNITE)
The Project Unite Team brings together Indiana University's School of Public Health-Bloomington faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students, and several Indiana community and organizational partnerships. They focused on two southern Indiana counties with high teen birth rates: Lawrence County and Orange County. These counties have teen birth rates that are higher than the state average, and Indiana as a whole has higher teen pregnancy rates than the national average. Project UNITE is developing and pilot testing a multi-level teen pregnancy intervention targeting youth, parents and caregivers, and the community in order to help lower these rates and support parenting teens.
Goal
Project UNITE's overall goal is to understand the culture and context surrounding teen pregnancy and parenthood in rural communities.
Objectives
- Conduct interviews with diverse community members to determine needs and assets surrounding teen pregnancy, birth, and parenthood.
- Implement a high school survey to get perspectives of local adolescents.
- Assess the fit of teen pregnancy prevention evidence-based programs to the setting and populations.
- Analyze primary and secondary data to determine community needs to support all teens.
- Share findings with communities.
- Structure and implement community informed prevention and intervention efforts.
Actions
To begin understanding the social and supportive climate surrounding teen pregnancy in Orange County and Lawrence County, the UNITE team partnered with Southern Indiana Community Health Care, the Lawrence County Teen Pregnancy Coalition, IU Health-South Central Region, Thrive Orange County, and Paoli, Orleans, and Springs Valley School Corporations. The project used a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach to work collaboratively with rural Indiana communities to inform community-directed interventions.
With the help of these organizations, Project UNITE researchers conducted semi-structured interviews to gather information about individual experiences knowledge, and attitudes about teen pregnancy and parenting. Participants included individuals such as teen parents, teens, parents of teens; school teachers, administrators, and staff; law enforcement officials, healthcare providers, social service providers, religious and community leaders.
Findings
The Project UNITE team developed an animated video series to share their project findings. In these videos, community leaders share the project's findings and explore the relevance of teen pregnancy and parenthood as a community issue.
Outcomes and next steps
Project UNITE identified five priority strategies to support Orange and Lawrence County teenagers, specifically those who are pregnant or parenting. The strategies are:
- Expand school and community-based sexual health education
- Adopt teen-centered approaches for health and social service delivery
- Allocate more resources that support investment in youth
- Increase and improve communication between youth and safe trusted adults: school, family, and community
- Increase youth mental health services and access, particularly for pregnant and parenting teens
Project UNITE will continue to share these strategies and develop them further in collaboration with rural communities.
Partners
Community
- Mindy Hightower King, Evaluation Consultant, Limelight Analytics
- Lisa Greathouse, IU Health-South Central Region
Lawrence County
- Karin Dubois, IU Health-South Central Region in Lawrence County
- Meagan Shipley, IU Health-South Central Region in Lawrence County
- Lawrence County Teen Pregnancy Coalition
Orange County
- Alexis Carmichael, SICHC, Orange County
- Sasha Newland, Orleans School Corporation
- Brandy Terrell, SICHC, Orange County
- Jamie Walker, IU Health-South Central Region in Orange County
- Yolanda Yoder, MD, SICHC, Orange County
- Paoli School Corporation
- Springs Valley School Corporation
- Orleans School Corporation
IU students
School of Public Health-Bloomington graduate students: Lauren Baney, Michaella Ward, Dechen Sangmo, Frederica Jackson, Susan Kavaya, Paul Levy, Jordyn Galyan.
School of Public Health-Bloomington undergraduate students: Peri Ehudin, Jordan Menser (honors), Jillian Fleischer (honors).
School of Medicine : Katherine Trudeau.
Medical Student Program for Research and Scholarship: Aislinn Betts.
IU faculty
- Alison Greene, Assistant Professor, School of Public Health-Bloomington
- Catherine Sherwood-Laughlin, Clinical Professor, School of Public Health-Bloomington
- Susan Middlestadt, Emeriti Professor, School of Public Health-Bloomington
Collaborating faculty
- Jonathon Beckmeyer, Associate Professor, University of Western Virginia
Resources
- National Library of Medicine: "'It Was Just Really Hard to Be Pregnant in a Smaller Town...': Pregnant and Parenting Teenagers' Perspectives of Social Support in Their Rural Communities"
- Southern Indiana Community Health Care: "Project UNITE"
- Times-Mail: "Project UNITE to review county's teen pregnancy rates"
- Times-Mail: "Project UNITE seeking help from county students, parents"
- Limestone Post: "Public Schools in Orange County Rely on Unique Health Partnerships"