T. J. ROYAL
One area non-profit director says that her organization losing funding for the past two years has had an effect on Edgecombe County's increased teenage pregnancy rate.
Among teenagers ages 15-19, there were 35 more pregnancies recorded in 2008 than 2007, according to the State Center for Health Statistics; 201 compared to 166. That increase resulted in Edgecombe having the second-highest teenage pregnancy rate in the state in 2008, with a 110.8 pregnancy rate for every 1,000 girls ages 15-19. Tyrrell County had the lone higher rate than Edgecombe last year.
Community Enrichment Organization Director Doris Stith said the pregnancy rate increase has coincided with her agency missing out on $150,000 in state funding for the past two years. The competitive grant-writing process did not yield a $75,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in 2007 or 2008, Stith said. With that money, CEO is able to provide "direct services," such as after-school counseling to girls in grades 6-12, she added.
With a successful grant application to DHHS this year, Stith said CEO will be able to counsel girls in after-school courses this academic year. Along with teaching them about effective birth control methods, Stith said she and another CEO employee "talk (to the students) about making choices, making choices towards their future" and resisting pressure from their peers to engage in sexual activity.
The groups, which meet from 3-6 p.m. Monday-Thursday, help teach students more about their bodies, and that "it is very OK to say no" to peer pressure when it comes to sex, she said. "And we encourage them to say a strong no."
The Down East Partnership for Children also funds the Teen Parent Support Group offered by CEO, which Stith said this year is helping 20 teenage mothers to complete high school, and to prevent them from having a repeat pregnancy. The Center for Health Statistics said that 61 of Edgecombe's 201 pregnancies in 2008 were repeats for the expecting teens.
This spring, all six seniors who participated in the Support Group graduated, and in 2008, all four seniors in the group also graduated, Stith said.
"The ones we work with do not drop out of school," she said.
The Edgecombe County Health Department also offers several different services for expecting women and mothers. Those include the Women Infant Children (WIC) nutrition and food voucher program, Baby Love and Baby Love Plus, which reach out to pregnant women in the community so they can receive pre-natal health care, as well as pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease testing, and birth control products like medication and condoms, as well as classes on how they are used.
With the increased number of pregnancies and births in Edgecombe last year, Stith emphasized that residents in the community must "deal with it head-on," to help young women avoid becoming pregnant at a young age.
Statewide, there were 19,398 pregnancies among teenagers ages 15-19 in 2008, 217 fewer than in 2007.
The state's teen pregnancy rate stood at 58.6 pregnancies per 1,000 girls ages 15-19. The pregnancy rate for white girls was 47.8, and the minority rate at 77.7.
In Edgecombe, the rate for white teens was 78.1, and for minorities at 123.8. Forty two white teenagers became pregnant in Edgecombe last year, compared to 158 minorities.
