TxT--Talking Sex Together

In February, FutureNet launched the first-of-its-kind teen pregnancy prevention campaign called TxT--Talking Sex Together. The focus of the campaign is to encourage teens to Talk about Sex Together (TxT) in their own language through text messaging. We are asking YOU to help make this campaign a success by signing up your local high schools and youth-serving programs to participate. Those that sign up will receive an electronic campaign tool kit to customize for use in promoting the campaign to local Iowa teens. Attached you'll find a preview of the TxT campaign in three documents: a letter outlining the campaign, talking points for organizational outreach, and the participation form.

About the TxT Campaign
The TxT campaign encourages teens to communicate messages of abstinence, teenage pregnancy avoidance, and safer sex through text messaging, one of the primary tools that bolster teens’ social networks. To facilitate conversations among teens, the campaign invites teens to develop and send euphemisms that deliver important messages about sex. For example, a teen might text her friend who is on a date and remind her to ZIU or “zip it up” in the heat of the moment. In doing so, the teen signals to her friend that she has peer support and reminds her to make smart decisions.

Tactics:
· TxT Contest: Teens can create and send their unique phrases on the TxT Web site as part of a contest for participating schools and programs. The schools or youth programs with the greatest number of unique euphemisms entries will receive a prize from a local radio station.

· Public Service Announcement (PSA): A PSA driving traffic to the Web site will air on radio stations in four Iowa cities: Des Moines, Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Sioux City, and Waterloo.

· TxT Materials: Posters, quick cards, screen savers for computer labs, and advertisements for student newspapers will be distributed to help schools spread word about the TxT campaign.

Launch of the Campaign
An electronic campaign tool kit will be available, which your organization can customize with your logo. You can print copies of the tool kit to distribute to students and youth organizations in your area. The tool kit will include:
• Posters
• Informational cards
• Advertisement for the student newspaper
• Screen savers for computer labs
• Brochure for parents
• PSA for student radio stations

Together, all of these elements will help create a supportive environment for teens to learn and talk about teen pregnancy prevention. Look for even more updates from FutureNet as the campaign progresses.

To learn more about TxT or to sign up your school or youth-serving organization, go here.

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Touchstones: Sexual Health Measures That Matter

IIn 2005, FutureNet unveiled a plan to ensure that all adolescent sexual health programs in Iowa adhere to medically-accurate, science-based standards in design, implementation, and evaluation. A multi-year initiative, Touchstones: Sexual Health Measures That Matter has as its vision:

By 2012, all adolescent sexual health education in Iowa will be designed, implemented, and evaluated according to accepted standards of science-based practice.

The Touchstones project focuses on increasing the public will and provider capacity for utilizing accepted science-based standards in all adolescent sexual health education in Iowa. We intend to effect change at three levels, with each level influencing and supporting the others as the project moves towards its vision.

Three Levels of Change
. Social Norms/the Iowa grassroots
. Knowledge & Skill/Educators & Service Providers in Iowa
. Policy/ Structural System for Sexual Health Education in Iowa

To learn more about Touchstones, please attend one of the following FutureNet regional meetings. Executive Director Rhonda Chittenden will be presenting a one-hour update on the initiative at each meeting.

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Science-Based Curricula Special Project

Our Level 2 partners attended the MOAPPP annual conference. Eva Brummel, Angie Howard, Holly Robinson, Lydia Arevalo, Kathy Dooley.

Our Science-Based Curricula Special Project will bring resources and technical assistance to four Iowa communities where service providers have committed to implementing a proven-effective sexual health curriculum with adolescents.

The goals of the Science-Based Curricula Special Project are:
• to increase the number of programs that utilize science-based curricula for teen pregnancy and STI/HIV prevention in Iowa.
• to demonstrate the possibilities for science-based practices in teen pregnancy and STI/HIV prevention in Iowa.
• to widen FutureNet’s circle of influence to new partners who will reach traditionally underserved youth populations with proven effective, science-based prevention practices.
 
Our Level 2 partners are Marshall County Coalition for Youth in Marshalltown and Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa in Red Oak/Creston. Both Level 2 Partners received funding to send a four-member team to the MOAPPP (Minnesota Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Prevention, and Parenting) annual conference on May 3-4, 2007. Both partners also received a proven-effective curriculum, curriculum training, and supplemental teaching tools to implement in their youth-serving programs. FutureNet will provide technical assistance, including at least one site visit and one training tailored to their needs for successful curriculum implementation.

Our Level 1 partners are the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Council of Muscatine and Louisa Counties in Muscatine and the Young Women's Resource Center in Des Moines. Both Level 1 partners received a proven-effective curriculum, curriculum training, and supplemental teaching tools to implement in their school, youth-serving program, or faith community. In addition, FutureNet will provide technical assistance to these partners.