Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After 18 months of studying and debating the topic, the City Manager's Task Force on Teen Pregnancy is turning to the public for input.
The group is sponsoring a town meeting on teen pregnancy at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Exhibit Hall of the Roanoke Civic Center.
The task force hopes that all teachers, guidance counselors, principals, parents, ministers, coaches - and anyone else who works with teen-agers - will come to the meeting prepared to share ideas for curbing teen pregnancy.
The panel also hopes they bring along as many teen-agers as possible. ``We don't think we've touched on talking to enough young people,'' said Sara Holland, a task force member, at a news conference Tuesday. ``We need to hear more of their feelings on the problem.''
Kathy LaMotte, the city's new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Project coordinator, will open the meeting with information including the latest figures on Roanoke's teen-pregnancy rate. Among the items she'll address:
Roanoke has the third-highest teen-pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-old female Virginians, according to 1994 data released this week by the Virginia Department of Health.
While the rate has gone down since 1991 - when Roanoke was ranked No.1 in that category - ``we're consistently about twice the state average,'' LaMotte said.
For every 1,000 15- to 19-year-old Roanoke females, 150.6 became pregnant in 1994, compared with the statewide rate of 74.1. That translates into 418 pregnancies, 264 of which resulted in live births.
Perhaps more alarmingly, while the older-adolescent rate has leveled off, the rate among 10- to 14-year-olds in Roanoke spiked in 1994, going from 5.2 to 7 pregnancies per 1,000 girls. The state rate is 2.4, LaMotte said.
Of those 19 young-adolescent pregnancies in Roanoke, 10 resulted in live births, and nine ended in abortion.
Sexually transmitted disease rates are up across the state, particularly among minority women and teen-age females, according to a report presented to this year's General Assembly.
The town meeting will begin with an information session, followed by a breakdown of participants into small work groups. The groups will brainstorm ideas for prevention strategies, then report back to the entire audience.
The task force hopes to draft its initial recommendations by the end of January.
``It is imperative that the whole community participate in the development, implementation and monitoring of services to the teen pregnancy at-risk population,'' said Ted Feinour, task force co-chairman.
``We may come up with the best program in the world, but it won't work if we don't have community support,'' LaMotte added.
by CNB