Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995 TAG: 9510170053
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Her task is not to provide solutions. That's more than can be expected of anyone, and something government alone can never provide. Sorry, but children are not raised by governments.
A community can and must come together, though, to do what it can to address a problem such as teen pregnancy, from which countless social ills and pains flow.
As it now stands, many players - churches, schools, non-profits, other private and public organizations - have critical pieces of the puzzle in their pockets. If all players can more clearly see who's got what, and how other efforts might fit together with the parts they're holding, what LaMotte calls the ``big picture'' could be brought into better focus.
Better coordination has been needed for a long time.
Many groups have a hand in teen pregnancy-prevention efforts - as part of their mission if not, like the city's special task force on the issue, their primary mission. Planned Parenthood and the Teen Outreach Program are two that do excellent work.
The problem with all these efforts in the aggregate isn't that philosophy and approach differ significantly, though they often do. The problem is the lack of strategy and priority-setting.
Not only does the right hand among the various organizations not always know what the left hand is doing. It may not know how the other is doing. A way needs be found to evaluate the effectiveness of various approaches - including some not yet tried here - and to shape them into a less fragmented, more targeted campaign.
As long as the city of Roanoke continues to have one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates in Virginia, it does not have the luxury of scattering resources and wasting energy.
LaMotte seems a good choice for the role of coordinator - a position funded with a state grant from the Virginia Department of Health, and by the city and the Better Beginnings Coalition. Her interest in teens stems from her work at TRUST, the city's venerable crisis-intervention agency, and as producer-host of the WBRA teen talk show, ``Some Assembly Required,'' as well as from her experience as the mother of a teen-age son.
One of her toughest challenges will be as facilitator as well as coordinator, helping to bring together those with differing ideological views on the issue. Her top priority, she says, is to identify and ``do whatever works to get our [teen-pregnancy] rate down and have a positive impact on people's lives.''
This makes sense. Focusing on "what works," and practical ways to get it done, is a goal around which teachers, social-service workers, church leaders, members of the city's task force on teen-pregnancy prevention, parents and everyone else ought to rally.
by CNB