Local teen health group garners national award

The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina celebrated its 20th anniversary by receiving an honor from the American Public Health Association.

The center, based in Chapel Hill, was awarded the APHA-GlaxoSmithKline Partnership for Healthy Children Award earlier this month.

The award honors programs that collaborate with the community and work to have an effect on children's health.

"It was truly an honor," said Kay Phillips, president of the coalition, who attended the ceremony in Washington, D.C. "It makes you want to come home and work even harder."

The coalition was chosen because of its efforts to increase the ability of health care providers, professionals and public officials to implement teen pregnancy prevention programs, according to a press release.

Along with the award, the coalition received a plaque and a $7,000 grant.

This is the first year that the coalition received the award.

Phillips said it was inspiring to be honored at a national level.

The coalition is the only organization in North Carolina that works specifically with adolescent pregnancy prevention, she added.

The coalition works with 40 county-level prevention programs and develops prevention models to combat teen birth rates.

Phillips said it is important for the state to have an organization that focuses on teens.

The group communicates its mission of preventing adolescent pregnancy by working with newspapers and attending health fairs, she said.

"We are a resource," she said. "Our mission is to help other entities."

Phillips said much of the organization's efforts are focused on the Hispanic population because the state has the nation's highest Hispanic teen birth rates.

The coalition is in the process of translating its informational documents into Spanish to better communicate with the Hispanic population, Phillips said.

She said the center hopes to have its entire Web site translated into Spanish within the next few months.

The Web site soon will be a place where Hispanic agencies can get information quickly and easily, Phillips said.

The Hispanic population has changed rapidly in North Carolina in the last five years, and the organization is trying to catch up to the demographic changes, she said.

Since 1990, the Hispanic population in Carrboro has risen 936 percent, according to the town of Carrboro Web site.

The coalition continues to look at ways to better serve the Hispanic population and to curb the teen birth rate, she said.

The coalition publishes a reference called the Hispanic Outreach Prevention Portfolio for teen pregnancy program providers who work with youth.

Last fall, the coalition co-sponsored the Southeastern U.S. Symposium on Hispanic Teen Pregnancy. Representatives from eight states and 20 North Carolina counties attended the event, according to a press release.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.