Teens & Toddlers

Statistics

TEENS & TODDLERS PROGRAM

     Teens & Toddlers is an effective teenage pregnancy / STI prevention program located in Los Angeles, California. Although teen pregnancy has dropped in recent years Los Angeles county still ranks high with 10.7% of the county’s births in 2000 being to teen parents. The crisis of teen pregnancy can be responded to through education in the high school grades. Teens & Toddlers has demonstrated its value as a preventative approach which can be successfully replicated in school districts and communities throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.

     Teen pregnancy has been linked to social exclusion, poverty, low educational attainment, child neglect, abuse, issues of lack of stability, lack of hope and love, lack of self respect, a sense of not belonging, health problems, substance abuse and violent crime. The United States leads the industrialized world in teen pregnancies with nearly one million teenage pregnancies every year – approximately one every nine minutes!

What Is Teens & Toddlers?

Teens & Toddlers is an innovative and practical program that significantly reduces the occurrence of pregnancies amongst participating teenagers. Developed in Los Angeles, California by Mrs. Laura Huxley, it is founded on creating an environment where at risk teenagers, both male and female, can experience first hand the demands of parent – child relationships and understand the implications of becoming a parent for their future life.

The two key learning elements of the Teens & Toddlers approach are: (1) regular one-to-one contact between teens at participating high schools and toddlers at their local daycare centers, with whom they establish a relationship during the project; (2) personal development sessions covering a broad curriculum including child development, effective parenting skills, anger management, sexuality and relationships. For the future we are working to add a third element: life coaching sessions delivered by trained interns for teen participants.

Project objectives include

Preventing teenage pregnancy through direct experience of the enormous responsibility and work parenting involves, through interaction with the daycare center children as well as the curriculum in class.

Teaching child development in an immediately applicable way both in the daycare center and at home with their own young siblings (and later as parents).

Facilitating and eliciting a capacity to reflect on the impact of words and behavior on others, developing new forms of behavior and interpersonal skills.

Exploring the realities of teenagers’ lives today such as sex, drugs, and peer pressure, to engender a more informed and empowered sense of choice and increased sexual responsibility.

Developing emotional literacy through self-reflection in order to heighten a sense of responsibility, ethical behavior and the capacity to form healthy relationships.

Increasing self-confidence and respect for self and others.

Creating a sense of achievement through a successful working relationship with a small child and through an in-depth work/volunteer experience at day care centers.

Development of job skills, life planning and alternative goals to being pregnant, such as satisfying work and relationships.

Enabling young people to effectively contribute to their local community engendering a positive experience of citizenship and community participation.

Key outcomes Young People report

·         Increased ability to take on a responsible role in life.

·         A significant impact on their choices about becoming parents.

·         Realization of alternative goals to being pregnant such as developing satisfying work and relationships.

·         Awareness of their capacity to make individual decisions thereby giving a sense of responsibility and empowerment with less need for peer conformity.

·         Experience of being a responsible young adult, treated with respect by daycare staff and Teens & Toddlers staff, and a sense of success and achievement.

·         Learning non-violent ways of self assertion, managing anger and by gaining practical interpersonal skills for more constructive behavior.

·         Increased motivation and educational engagement including school attendance.

Additional Benefits

Lower teenage pregnancy rate, awareness about STD’s / STI’s thereby resulting in significantly reduced financial burden on tax payers, Social Services, and health benefits.

Young people staying in the educational system longer, thereby raising their employment possibilities and reducing financial burden on tax payers, Social Services, and health benefits.

Community engagement through working in and contributing to local daycare centers and support for day care staff.

Early intervention with small children through the teens ‘befriending’ in the daycare centers.

Citizenship skills through multi-cultural participation and promotion of an appreciation of difference and improved social behavior.

Health Improvements: increased emotional literacy – skills of self reflection, self-management, relationship to others & relationship to society.

Future parenting and relationship skills.

Crime prevention through anger management, work with awareness of choice and personal responsibility and future life goals.

Research and Evaluation

Every Teens & Toddlers program has an evaluation and reporting process. The research is focused on the efficacy of the project with an overall aim to explore both short and long term impacts. The key features that are valued by young people are real life experience, practical knowledge and the opportunity to dialogue about key issues.

---

In 2002, with our permission, Diana Whitmore, inspired by our Teens & Toddlers program, founded a separate and financially independent organization in the UK entitled COUI UK, to deliver the Teens & Toddlers program there to great affect with their local authorities. For more information please visit the COUI UK website at http://www.teensandtoddlers.org.

LAURA HUXLEY / HISTORY / TEENS & TODDLERS / PROJECT CARESSING
COUP / PHILOSOPHY / BUY LAURA'S BOOKS / 1978 CONFERENCE
1994 CONFERENCE / 2000 FUNDRAISER / RESEARCH / LINKS / DONATE / CONTACT
PRAYER OF THE UNCONCEIVED