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Originally launched as a partnership between junior and senior high schools
and a neighborhood clinic, this program combines education, counseling, and
reproductive services into a comprehensive intervention for youth. Services are
provided by a team of nurses and social workers who divide their time between
the schools and clinic. School-based components include: (1) at least one
presentation to each homeroom class per semester to introduce the program and
begin discussing values clarification, decision making, and reproductive
health; ( 2) informal discussion groups that arise as students seek advice and
information from staff on such themes as pubertal development, drug use, and
parenting; and (3) individual counseling sessions, available as needed, with a
social worker. At the clinic, reproductive and extended counseling services are
provided, and referrals are given for teens requiring medical care. Staff
encourage students waiting for appointments to participate in discussion groups
and examine educational videos and pamphlets. A three-year field test of the
intervention was conducted in a low-income neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland,
where elevated rates of sexual activity and teen pregnancy had been recorded.
Compared to their peers attending comparable schools, students in the target
schools showed reduced levels of sexual activity and (among the sexually
active) more effective use of contraception. These effects were greatest among
the younger, sexually active girls and boys whose use of contraception was
minimal at the start of the program. A delay in the onset of sexual activity
was also recorded among abstinent youth.
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