A Conversation with Forrest Alton, CEO, South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

MidlandsBiz:
What is the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy? Why do you matter?

Forrest Alton:
We’re a private, non-profit organization headquartered in Columbia, but we work in all regions of the state. The organization was founded in 1994 in response to too high teen pregnancy and birth rates in our state. Now, 21 years later, we are celebrating a 54% decline in South Carolina’s teen birth rate. This is the kind of progress that would have been unthinkable to the small group of committed individuals that started this effort two decades ago. From day one, the mission of the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (SC Campaign) has been to improve the health and economic well being of individuals, communities and the state through the prevention of teen pregnancy, and that’s exactly what we’ve done and are doing.

We are the only organization who works statewide on this issue [in person and online] – with the objective of building the capacity of local communities to address teen pregnancy within their own neighborhoods. We train youth serving professionals; increase the capacity of schools, clinical, and community sites; initiate communication within families; use technology to reach young people; and advocate for policies that support young people.

MidlandsBiz:
Outline your past successes? What are you most proud of?

Forrest Alton:
Anytime we can move the needle as much as our state has on a measure of overall health and well being, it’s reason to celebrate. We’re very proud of the role we have played in decreasing the state’s teen birth rate by 54%. But, we recognized very early on that we wouldn’t be able to prevent teen pregnancy by sitting in an office in Columbia. Over the past 20 years we’ve engaged hundreds of partners in communities across the state. This success story isn’t ours alone – it’s everyone that is involved in this issue.

I honestly believe the progress made on preventing teen birth is one of our state’s greatest, yet untold success stories. It’s important for people to understand the substantial impact on communities when children are not having children. We know that children born to teen mothers are more likely to be born low birth weight, are at greater risk for infant mortality, less prepared to enter kindergarten, less likely to finish high school, and more likely to face challenges of poverty for their whole lives. We also know teen mothers are less likely to graduate from high school…only 38% ever will…and less than 2% of young mothers will go on to earn a college degree by age 30. Consider all of this and recognize that if the teen birth rate had not decreased like it has over the past two decades, an (estimated) 34,000 additional children would have been born to teen mothers.

MidlandsBiz:
What are the most common misconceptions about your organization?

Forrest Alton:
I’d like to offer a couple perspectives on that question. First, with any public health issue, it is easy to see this massive decline (54%) and believe we can wipe our hands of the issue and move on to the next issue in line. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. While great progress has been made, there is still a long way to go as our state ranks 13^th in the nation for teen births and more than 4,700 young women under the age of 20 give birth each year. Progress – yes. Success…not quite.  It’s not time to pack up and go home, it’s time to refocus and move forward.

On the topic of misconception, I’m asked all the time “does the SC Campaign support abstinence or contraception.” The question in-and-of-itself is a great misconception. It implies that we have to choose one approach or the other, when in fact, our organization supports BOTH a stronger message that abstinence is the first and best choice for young people AND greater access to contraception for sexually active teens. We’ve done ourselves a disservice as a society thinking we have to choose one approach over the other. It’s clear that a combination of more abstinence and increased contraceptive use have led to these dramatic declines. This is not an “either/or” conversation, it’s a “both/and” conversation.  Anything and everything we can do in our communities to support young people’s decisions to note have sex and their ability to access low-cost, age-appropriate reproductive health care – we should be doing!

MidlandsBiz:
How are you funded?

Forrest Alton:
Our organization is funded through a combination of federal, state and private funding. Significant federal dollars are currently coming into South Carolina to support teen pregnancy prevention efforts; however, what started this whole effort was an investment made from the State Legislature and several private funders across the state. We are very fortunate to have the support of many individual, corporate, and private donors; and are always exploring new funding streams to support and sustain our work.

MidlandsBiz:
What are your current achievements?  Are you advancing your goals in 2015? What are your goals for the next 2-3 year time frame?

Forrest Alton:
We’re getting ready to roll out a new strategic plan over the next several weeks. It’s an exciting time in our agency because the success of the last 20 years has proven that this issue isn’t intractable, in fact, far from it. We know that progress is possible, but we still have to be thoughtful in planning the work of the next several years to be sure that our efforts and strategies rise to the needs presented by the ever changing world that young people are growing up in. Here are four themes you can be sure will be prominent in our work moving forward:

• Be accountable. With 20+ years of experience, our organization knows what works and we support all efforts to prevent teen pregnancy that are proven effective. It is important that our efforts remain grounded in science and research – and that we hold each other accountable (as parents, teachers, care givers, service providers) to a high standard.
• Be innovative. The world young people are living in is changing rapidly. We must be innovative and push the envelope with this issue. Our field (and all of public health) will become dinosaurs if we don’t find ways to be more creative, especially in the digital world. The SC Campaign is proud to be one of only a few nonprofit organizations in our state that has both a fully staffed research department and a fully staffed communications department. This combination allows us to conduct original research to better understand the needs of young people in SC and identify emerging trends in the field, and increases our ability to disseminate messages and exist in an increasingly digital environment. Innovation will be a key focus of our agency in the years ahead.
• Increase engagement. In order to make the biggest impact, we must have more people at the table. As a field, we have done ourselves a disservice by focusing this issue solely on sex, and getting bogged down in a debate about what young people are being taught in the classroom. Sex education is an essential part of our work, but it’s also insufficient. This isn’t just a single issue! It’s about reducing poverty. Increasing graduation rates. Decreasing child abuse and domestic violence. Increasing access to health services. A collective impact approach is vital to further progress. Having voices at the table from multiple fields/agencies will allow us to accelerate progress.
• Impact systems. Since day one, the SC Campaign has been focused on building the capacity of the adults in a child’s life. Our focus has been more wholesale…not retail… because we cannot reach every young person or parent alone. As I said earlier, we can’t prevent teen pregnancy by sitting in an office in Columbia, and we can’t reach every young person in the state by going door-to-door.  You will continue to see us continue partnering with state level organizations and those that can support system level change that have the ability to impact large numbers of youth.What is your main message to our readers?

Our state has come so far in the prevention of teen pregnancy, but we have a long way to go. We need everyone to get active and get involved – the caring parent, business owner, teacher, local official…we can’t reach every person in South Carolina, but with YOUR help and partnerships; together WE CAN!

As experts in the community and parents to your children, be a part of the solution. Visit the websites www.teenpregnancysc.org and www.notrightnowsc.org that are full of information for parents, teachers, youth serving professionals, and community members. Like them on Facebook and Twitter; follow along in the journey. Educate yourself on the issue and then get involved. They want to have more people across the state volunteering and investing – their time, talent and treasure. All three are needed for continued progress – how will you get involved?

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