In D.C., the Anacostia River divides the city’s east side from its west. Residents east of the river, in wards 7 and 8, are historically categorized as living below the poverty line, neglected by the city compared to wealthier areas. Crime and unemployment is everywhere; access to jobs, city services, and healthcare is limited. It’s certainly not hard to believe that the greatest number of teens giving birth in the District are in wards 7 and 8.
While the teen birth rate in the District has
declined 65 percent between 1991 and 2010, numbers have remained relatively unchanged over the past several years in wards 7 & 8. In 2007,
there were 222 births to teens in Ward 7 and 216 births in
2011, according to the DC Department of Health’s Center for Policy, Planning, and Evaluation. In Ward 8, births to teens were recorded at
306 in 2007 and 295 in
2011.
The impact of this crisis, however, stretches into the wallets of residents all across the city.
Teen mothers often rely on public health care (Medicaid and CHIP), while their children have an increased risk of participation in child welfare and are more likely to become incarcerated—all public services by funded by taxpaying dollars.
Between 1991 and 2010 there have been
24,637 births to mothers 19 and younger in Washington, D.C., costing taxpayers a whopping $1.1 billion over that period, according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Additionally, teen mothers are much more likely to drop out of high school, decreasing their earning potential for their entire lives. The cycle of poverty persists with their children, who often live below the poverty line and become teen parents themselves.
Uptown/downtown
A 2013 study conducted by PerryUndem Research and Communication on behalf of the DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy revealed that east-of-the-river teens often intentionally engage in risky behavior as a response to their environment.
Regarding an “uptown/downtown perception,” the study says that
“Some teens from Wards 7 and 8 feel their community is neglected—that there is nothing positive happening in their community.” Wards 7 and 8 aren’t as vibrant with shops, restaurants and entertainment, they say, and residents are not as diverse.
"Uptown is not like the ghetto. Because I live in Ward 8, so that’s like the ghetto," said one teen in the study.
"A ticket out"
In communities where liquor stores and drug addicts decorate street corners, teen pregnancy can be seen as a way out.
“Unfortunately there are some planned pregnancies in these communities, they see it as their ticket out. Young people see that if I have a child, it could be a way for me to get a voucher, my own housing and supplemental money,” says Melva Williams, program director for Sasha Bruce Youthwork’s Teen Outreach Program TOP.
Organizations on the frontlines
TOP has operated since 2011. The program is in schools in Wards 7 & 8.
“It taught me how to be safe with sex, I never knew about STDs before this,” says Javonte Vaden, who went through the 9-month program and is now a senior at Ballou.
This year, Vaden was selected to become a peer educator, one of the program’s most valued assets.
TOP has worked with over 1,000 students within four middle and high schools. Pregnancies are reported to staff by the participants. Williams has yet to receive any report of pregnancies for the past term.
In 2012, DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy called on council members to sign the symbolic “Sense of the Council on Achieving Half by 2015 Resolution of 2012.”
Six councilmembers made the pledge, the first time in city history, to work with the DC Campaign and its partners to promote ”city-wide the message that ‘teen pregnancy is in no-one’s best interest,’” ensure funding for research-based programs for adolescents and encourage agencies to promote contraceptive use by sexually active teens.
“A lot of my friends had mothers who were teen parents and a lot of my friends became teen fathers in school and instead of going to college and playing football, they ended up working at Pizza Hut,” says AJ Cooper, a native Washingtonian who is public policy director at the DC Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, a nonprofit founded in 1999. “I want to make sure that all of my friends and their children have the same shot at success, and preventing teen pregnancy is one of those things that people don’t really think about but has dramatic effects on outcomes for African-Americans in the city.”
Is the government doing enough?
In a town where dollars make sense, Cooper calls for more substantial financial backing from the District government.
In 2014, The Summit Fund of Washington—which has dispensed almost $17 million worth of grant funding to fight teen pregnancy—will end its funding for the issue, says Cooper, who also notes that this will leave a number of nonprofits lacking up to sixty percent of their budgets.
The DC Campaign is advocating for a $2 million line item for teen pregnancy prevention to be added to the city’s budget and remain until rates decrease to the single digits.
“It’s literally pennies compared to what they spend on all kinds of other things. This is something that really needs to happen and it’s a chance to make a big impact for once on the teen pregnancy front,” says Cooper.
Councilmember Yvette Alexander, Chair of the DC Council’s Health Committee and Ward 7 representative, who also signed the “Half by 2015 Resolution”, does not see a “teen pregnancy prevention” line item for a future budget, but says she firmly supports the issue by ensuring grant funding from the DC Department of Health and other agencies fund teen pregnancy prevention initiatives.
“I’ve done a lot of investment for teen pregnancy for the last cycle and I intend to do it again for this budget,” says Alexander. “We’re bringing a lot of attention to the subject that even if you have a first child you don’t have to have another one—so we’re really doing well with the single parents and not having other children.”
The Teen Parent Assessment Program (TPAP), under the DC Department of Human Services, works with teen parents, ages 17 and under who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefits. TPAP conducts motivational workshops in the areas of relationships, domestic violence awareness, communications, conflict resolution, anti-bullying and finances.
Within the school system, Alexander says, funding has gone towards hiring more nurses and increasing health and sexual education through programs like The Young Women’s Project’s Peer Health and Sexuality Education program and Crittenton Services of Greater Washington.
Outside of the classroom, programs and services like the Summer Youth Employment Program, the Washington Nationals Baseball Academy, the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation, the Fort DuPont Ice Arena and Parent and Adolescent Support Services all serve as indirect preventers of teen pregnancy.
“We are investing in our young people in whatever contact that we can get,” says Alexander. “Their potential is great—we need to encourage them through different activities and being role models and mentors to our young people.”
Thumbnail image courtesy Flickr user Mahalie Stackpole.
This article has been updated to correct the amount the teen birth rate has declined since 1991; it is 65 percent, not 5 percent. Elevation DC regrets the error.