
DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997                TAG: 9704080286

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  115 lines

PARTNERS IN PREVENTION JOIN FORCESAT A FORUM MONDAY, THE REGION'S HEALTH OFFICIALS, TEACHERS, CHURCH PASTORS AND SOCIAL WORKERS WERE CHALLENGED TO REDUCE THE OUT-OF-WEDLOCK BIRTH RATE - AND VIE FOR $20 MILLION.

The question of the hour was a tough one: How do you reduce Virginia's out-of-wedlock birth rate?

And the answers were as wide-ranging as the participants at a regional forum on the subject Monday.

From the churches: More abstinence programs.

From Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia: More birth control information.

From local health workers: More counseling and activities for youth.

But whether the approach was ``just say no'' or more sex education, participants of the Partners in Prevention forum were enthusiastic about a challenge from the state to reduce the out-of-wedlock birth rate - nearly 30 percent in Virginia and higher in most South Hampton Roads cities.

``The initiative is excellent,'' said Anthony Ruffin, a member of the Northampton County Board of Supervisors and pastor of a church in Cape Charles. ``It gives the people ownership of the problem and allows us to develop programs that will work for us.''

That's just the kind of spirit the state is seeking. The commonwealth of Virginia is vying for a $20 million grant the federal government will award to each of five states that most reduce their out-of-wedlock rates, without a corresponding increase in abortions, over a two-year period.

The $20 million grants, which will be given annually over a span of four years, are part of the federal welfare reform act.

Rather than come up with federal or state solutions, officials are going directly to localities for help. And the reward is simple: If Virginia wins the bounty, it will share the proceeds with the individual communities that most contribute to the effort. In some cases, a single municipality might get up to $1 million. In addition, the plans those localities create might be used as national models.

``The state is saying to you, we don't have the silver bullet,'' said Robert C. Metcalf, Virginia's secretary of health and human resources. ``The solutions are so intimate and so local that only you at the local level have those solutions.''

About 100 community leaders of Hampton Roads and the surrounding region - including church pastors, social workers, teachers, health workers and human-service agency employees - attended the forum at Chrysler Hall.

Local communities and Virginia can expect to benefit from a lower out-of-wedlock birth rate even if they don't win the grant. Research has shown that children born out of wedlock are at higher risk of relying on welfare and Medicaid, of dropping out of high school, of being involved in juvenile delinquency and of becoming teen parents.

``The winners in this initiative are going to be children born into families that are prepared for them and ready to care for them in a nurturing environment that they deserve,'' said Randolph Gordon, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health.

The seven Hampton Roads cities rank among the top 50 the state has pegged as contributing the most to out-of-wedlock births. Norfolk had the highest number of births in the state from 1991 to 1995 - but in terms of percentage of out-of-wedlock births to overall births, it fell below Portsmouth and Suffolk. Forty-four percent of Norfolk's births were to unwed mothers, compared with 50 percent of Portsmouth's births and 45 percent of Suffolk's. The state average - 29.5 percent - falls slightly below the national rate of 32 percent.

Monday's forum was one of four regional gatherings the state is conducting. The last forum will be Monday in Roanoke.

Kathy Wibberly, a senior policy analyst for the Virginia Department of Health, reminded participants that births to unwed mothers are not solely a teen-age problem. Nationally, only three out of 10 children born out of wedlock are born to teen-age mothers. Most of the children are born to mothers between 20 and 30 years old. Also, most of the births are not first births.

And, according to national studies, 70 percent of births to unwed parents are unintended.

``If they don't want these births, and we don't want them, let's work together on this problem,'' Wibberly said.

Participants of the forum had various ideas on how to answer the state's challenge.

The Rev. John Dooley of the Apostle Lutheran church in Chesapeake, said that congregation is starting a program called True Love Waits that encourages people, no matter the age, to abstain from sex outside of marriage. The church is also trying to educate people on the option of adoption, in cases where a woman becomes pregnant unintentionally.

Lisa Persikoff, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia, had a different approach: ``We need to increase the use of contraception - not just make it more accessible but better educate people about how to use it.''

To become part of the state's race for the $20 million grant, cities must have a governing body sign a resolution agreeing to join Partners in Prevention. Localities also must have a town meeting to discuss the problem by June 10 and send in a ``partnership agreement'' by July 1 that outlines a plan on how to reduce out-of-wedlock births and identify a coalition of organizations that will carry out the strategy.

The earliest a state, and local communities, could receive money would be 1999. MEMO: For more information about the Partners in Prevention program,

call Kathy Wibberly at 804-786-1211.

Following Monday's forum on out-of-wedlock births, WPEN-TV hosted a

town hall meeting on reducing teen pregnancies. That program,

``Solutions: Kids Having Kids,'' will air at 7:30 p.m. April 13 on

WPEN-TV. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

From left, Doris Roberts, Debbie Lewis and Faye Wade, all Chesapeake

human services workers, listen to a discussion on out-of-wedlock

births. Monday's forum at Chrysler Hall began the local organization

of a statewide prevention effort.

Graphic

The seven Hampton Roads cities rank among the top 50 the state has