obviously i've been gone a long time. and quite a bit has happened. in addition to personal life change (i got married!), i have exciting updates related to my journey. the non-profit has been created!! it is officially a 501(c)3!!! however, it was not due my efforts, but the efforts of david wiley, a texas state university professor. i, by dumb luck, heard about his work and contacted him last fall. he was in the process of recruiting board members for a non-profit devoted to teen pregnancy prevention. i was immediately on board!
david had already completed so much groundwork that i was able to jump into a functional group. he had pulled together the experts in teen pregnancy prevention in the state of texas for a meeting earlier in the year, and then from the meeting, he began to form a board of directors. he also had contacted a couple of national organizations, the national campaign to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancy and advocates for youth, to support his venture. they offered resources and necessary support as he moved forward to make this dream a reality. i joined in the first board meeting in january.
as i looked around the table, i kept wondering how i got there. i didn't belong at this table. we had the best researchers and professionals in teen pregnancy prevention in the state and me. i have the heart and the passion, but not the status, professional respect, or critical knowledge to be much of an asset to the group. however, david didn't kick me out : ). instead, i was able to see how i could support the group in smaller tasks that the other busy board members might not have time for...which helped me feel useful.
we've met once a month since january and worked towards a name, website, mission, strategic plan. it's been such an interesting process listening to the discussions....what is our purpose? who is our target audience? how much do we want to be involved in politics? how can we get staff? who will fund us? we had a strategic planning session led by nonprofit consultant, sharon edwards, who is also a board member. she helped us streamline our main objectives and situations we would like to impact through our work. we have submitted two LOIs for grants, and one foundation accepted our letter and wants us to submit for a full proposal!! once we have funding, we can hire staff and move from a board of director-led organization to a fully-functioning, staffed organization!!!
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here's a snippet of our strategic planning results:
The Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy uses multiple strategies:
Public Awareness to reframe issues and engage key audiences
Research and Publications to inform decisions with best, most accurate information
Public Policy/Advocacy to educate key stakeholders to support realistic and effective policies
Promote Professional Development to enhance the professional capacity and skills of youth serving professionals
Through these efforts, we plan to have the following outputs:
* Effective messages reach more teens and adults through variety of media
* General public has more exposure to accurate information about the costs of teen pregnancy
* Teens get access to comprehensive information about sexual health issues and service through a variety of youth serving partner programs
* Policy makers have access to more accurate information that aids in their understanding
* Providers incorporate accurate and appropriate sexual health information throughout all of their teen programs
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exciting, right? we plan to have a statewide conference next fall to introduce us and help train the many youth-serving professionals in the latest and most effective teen pregnancy prevention strategies. our website (hopefully up soon) will be the resource for proven, effective teen pregnancy prevention curriculum and home to plenty of research and statistics related to texas' teen pregnancy crisis. more updates to come....but i'm impressed i could condense over a year's worth of work into this.
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