Maine Family Planning
Outreach
What is Outreach?
For information on Maine Family Planning's efforts in Maine communities,
please e-mail our Outreach Department.
Maine Family Planning Outreach Partners: Who are they? What do they do? What topics do they discuss?
What is the Outreach program?
Outreach progams work with Maine communities:
- To reduce the rates of teen pregnancy, and
- Increase awareness of and access to family planning services.
Outreach Educators work with teens, women, men and families providing them with the information they need to make healthy choices. The Outreach program is funded by Maine's Bureau of Health and works in partnership with community members and organizations.
How does Outreach work?
Outreach Educators design and present educational programs based on the stated needs of community organizations, businesses, schools and individuals.
These educational programs focus on topics local communities want, including healthy sexuality, relationships, reproductive anatomy and physiology, puberty and family planning. On an annual basis, the Outreach Program reaches thousands of adults and teens with information that fosters open communication and responsible decision-making.
Reducing teen pregnancy rates in priority communities
Outreach Educators reach thousands of adults and teens each year with information that promotes healthy sexuality.
In Maine, teen pregnancy rates are going down. Still, in many towns and communities teenage girls are getting pregnant at rates far above the state average. The Outreach Program concentrates its efforts in communities where teen pregnancy rates are still high.
Fortunately, change is happening and in many of these communities fewer teens are getting pregnant than in the past. Experience shows that when communities work together to provide information, education and services to teens and their families, the rate of teen pregnancy goes down.
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PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Outreach Educators tailor their programs and services to meet the needs of any community group. Programs include:
- Rockland Family Planning conducts day-long puberty workshops for mothers and daughters in coastal and island communities to improve parent-child communication and help young women feel more positive about their changing bodies.
- Tri-County Health Services advises and supports young people who are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered or questioning their sexuality in collaborative partnership with Outright in the Lewiston/Auburn area.
- Downeast Health Services meets with both male and female inmates at the Washington and Hancock County Jails to discuss sexually transmitted infections, birth control methods, and family planning services.
- ACAP/Health 1st in Aroostook County supports Sisters-in-Sight, an interactive theater group for girls which provides a safe place for young women to creatively express the challenges they face as teens.
- Augusta Family Planning provides one-on-one counseling to students at two high schools, supporting the school's guidance services and offering on-site information and education to teens.
- KVCAP Health Services is a leader of the Teen Health Information Network Council, a coalition of area service providers that meet to organize activities for youth, including annual boys and girls days for middle school age youth in Somerset County.
- Penquis Health Services trains Peer Educators at the University of Maine in Orono, to share important prevention and reproductive health information with their fellow students.
What's next?
Maine has one of the lowest teen pregnancy rates in the nation. However, there are still towns and communities in every county where teenagers do not have the information, skills and access to services they need to make healthy choices.
Collaborating with local agencies, schools and individuals, Family Planning Outreach Educators are making a difference. Through sustained Outreach efforts to prevent unintended teen pregnancy, Maine communities will grow stronger.
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