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Summary
of ReCAPP Forum:
"Making Guys Part of the Solution to Teen Pregnancy Prevention"
October
2001
Our October
2001 forum on Male Involvement included more than 200 people from across
the United States and from as far away as Australia and Vietnam. Thank
you to everyone who participated and supplied valuable insights, examples,
and resources. The two-day e-mail discussion focused on the following
issues:
Starting
a Male Involvement Program
A participant from Virginia asked: "What do you think would be the best
way to introduce a fatherhood campaign to a smallish, rural, Christian,
CONSERVATIVE community, where words/ideas like SEX are almost taboo ...?"
- Forum Moderator Héctor Sánchez-Flores: "In communities
where open and honest dialogue is not possible in schools or community
centers, the responsibility falls on parents or adult caregivers to
provide accurate information. Programs can attempt to build the capacity
of adults to address these topics."
"One program did this and then the parents asked the program to
do the same with their children. The parents realized how complicated
the discussion could get and preferred, now that they had the information,
that someone else do the sex education. The parents decided that what
they wanted to do was to express their expectations with the young people
and reinforce their own personal family's values. Perhaps this is a
middle ground that communities can embrace."
He added that there is some good news. "I have not experienced much
community resistance when it comes to male involvement programs. This
may be due to the fact that education provided to young men is not held
in the same light as [it is for] young women."
"Finally," he said, "it is very challenging for a community to speak
with one voice on any topic or issue. Teen sexual development, sex,
and teen pregnancy prevention should not be any different - especially
since many of us were not privy to an open dialogue on this topic, and
we do not have a personal experience to model with the young people
we are around."
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker mentioned the report issued by the National
Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Keeping the Faith: The Role of
Religion and Faith Communities in Preventing Teen Pregnancy. He
felt it might provide some insight into potentially working with or
building faith-based approaches. This report can be found on-line at:
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/today.htm
A participant
mentioned the high price tag for many curricula and asked for suggestions
on how to initiate a male involvement program when a project has only
$10,000 in funding. Some possible ideas already being considered include:
using the money to initiate a dialogue among the men who are already working
with young men in the local communities; identifying the health and sexuality
issues relevant to young men and coming up with strategies for addressing
those issues; and conducting a community-wide forum to present the identified
health needs and strategies.
- Forum Moderator Héctor Sánchez-Flores: "There is much
that can be done in creating a mind set that leads to male involvement
when resources do not exist to create a specific male involvement program.
Community-based agencies are almost always hiring new staff for different
projects."
"If you'd like to develop better services for guys in the community,
perhaps identifying prospective staff that are willing and capable of
working with males is a first step — even if the program is intended
to reach both male and females. Having a male on staff can create organizational
expertise to serve males which may lead to the development of male involvement
services over time."
He added that $10,000 can do a lot in some communities. "It can provide
stipends to young men to receive training for positions within organizations
that train and hire young people. It can pay for a portion of a person's
FTE to dedicate a portion of their time reaching out to and serving
males. And it can be seed money to conduct focus groups with young men
to find out what they need, etc."
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker: "EngenderHealth, an international reproductive
health organization, has a special program called 'Men as Partners'
(MAP) that provides technical assistance to other organizations that
are trying to constructively involve men in family planning and reproductive
health. They have developed a special training to help organizations
that are looking to implement men's reproductive health services."
Becker also shared some suggestions for men's services that are low
or no-cost, which are copyrighted by EngenderHealth and cannot be duplicated
without their permission. Contact EngenderHealth for more information.
Erin Kenny, from EngenderHealth, subsequently contributed information
about the training and services they offer. Erin may be reached at:
ekenny@EngenderHealth.org.
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Characteristics
of Effective Male Involvement Programs
A participant
from Boston wanted to learn more about the experiences of programs working
with both males and females as well as programs working solely with boys
and young men. She wanted to learn more about the differences in the programs
and the unique needs of males in prevention efforts.
- A health educator for Family Planning in Port Angeles, Washington
suggested the best way to relate positively to males in a program is
with a male educator. He also said that he thought being young (in his
early 20s) helped him connect with youth in his groups.
- Thomas Carver, Coordinator of the Teen Fatherhood Program in Ventura
County California, uses a speakers' bureau as a preventative measure,
and it is very effective. Young men are trained in public speaking and
then speak to health education classes in local junior and senior high
schools. "Their message is a powerful one, and we get great feedback
from the students that they would not have listened as intently if the
information had come from an adult."
- Several participants followed up on the speakers' bureau idea by mentioning
Toastmasters International, which has a youth leadership portion that
is separate from the adult groups. "This is all volunteer," said one
participant, "but it is part of their development (adults [in Toastmasters])
to start a youth group. Check them out on the web."
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Balancing
Male and Female Services
Forum Moderator
Lori Rolleri asked: "How do you respond to reproductive health
folks who are concerned that money spent on men's services may place women's
services and programs in jeopardy?"
- Forum Moderator Héctor Sánchez-Flores: "The reality
is that services are badly needed for BOTH women and men. But at some
point in life most people will be in relationships where they will need
to support one another and dialogue about the very serious topics of
family planning or reproductive health just to name two."
"For years, young and adult men have not been included in this
dialogue. Consequently, there is an important need for men and young
men to learn about these topics and discover the importance of seeking
clinical services at an early age for their own sake."
"When I think of young people navigating adolescence, in this environment,
they have to be well conversant about sexual topics. The potential outcome
of both young men and women being able to talk about these topics is
that they will be able to communicate and respect each other's desires
when a decision is considered to have or not have sex."
"But young men AND young women need to be given information! The
more people talk and share accurate information with young people about
these topics, the better off they will be in making the decisions of
their life."
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker agreed with Sánchez-Flores and
added: "EngenderHealth has developed some 'talking points' for people
to respond to the following question: 'If we have programs that focus
on men right now, isn't there a danger that resources will be allocated
to men's programs at the expense of women's programs?'" These 'talking
points' can be found at: http://www.engenderhealth.org/ia/wwm/index.html
and include the following:
- The idea is to create programs that benefit both men and women,
therefore eliminating the idea that there has to be competition
between men's and women's services. Still, careful monitoring must
be integrated into programs to make sure that an increase in attention
to men's needs does not come at the expense of women's needs.
- Careful attention must also be paid to ways in which women have
suffered as a result of men not being included in reproductive health
care. One classic example of this is the situation where a woman
has to be treated repeatedly for the same sexually transmitted infection
because her partner does not have access to, or will not seek, care.
- While there are a few examples of profits from men's programs
subsidizing services for women, more research is needed in order
to understand true costs of service provision to both women and
men.
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Examples
of Male Involvement Programs
- Rick Chafino of the El Paso Young Fathers Project (EPYFP) in El Paso,
Texas provided information about the fatherhood program he manages.
Through collaborative efforts, his program:
- assists young fathers with returning to school to complete a GED
or college degree;
- helps fathers to improve work skills;
- provides counseling for young fathers and their partners; and
- offers training in early childhood intervention skills, parenting
by nurturing skills, and overall male/father responsibility.
- Carolyn Corkindale from Adelaide, South Australia contributed information
about a program called 'First Time Fathers.' "[We are] working on ways
to prevent unplanned teen pregnancy from the male perspective. We are
focusing on developing multi-media materials that help young men understand
the consequences to them, the young woman and the baby if they conceive
a pregnancy. We are also interested to understand the decision-making
processes a young man goes through in relation to all this. I have collected
my 'content' from informal focus groups of young fathers and with teens
in school."
- Kim from Yakima, Washington mentioned 'Project CHANGE,' a teen pregnancy
prevention project funded by the CDC. "My position as a neighborhood
advocate is mainly coalition building. Many of the groups I meet with
are looking for culturally sensitive male involvement programs that
include help for teen fathers, adult men [who] do not know how to be
'fathers' and male youth."
- Donna Harris mentioned that the teen pregnancy prevention program
in Southeast Florida recently hired a male case manager. "Every teen
who comes into our clinic for a pregnancy or STI test is offered the
opportunity to talk to a case manager. Case managers offer education,
help teens get contraception, make referrals, and provide ongoing support/follow-up.
We also offer sexual health education to students in alternative school
settings and will soon be offering classes for parents on how to talk
to their teens about sensitive subjects. This is a relatively new program,
and we have not had full staffing for most of it, but a similar model
was used here several years ago with great success."
- Jan Hayne provided information about the 'Dads Make a Difference'
(DMAD) program. "DMAD is a collaborative, positive youth development,
teen pregnancy prevention, paternity education program through the University
of Minnesota Extension Service. DMAD trains high school teens teaching
as a male/female pair to deliver a four-lesson curriculum to middle
school-age youth. The curriculum helps these older teens discuss with
younger youth the importance of fathers in families, the responsibilities
of being a parent, risky behavior, and decision-making, in hopes the
younger youth (and the teen teachers themselves) will then wait to become
parents until they are ready financially and emotionally."
"DMAD is primarily a school-based program, but is also used through
some community agencies. DMAD is also being taught at juvenile correction
sites. About 8-10% of the teen teachers involved are teen parents. Check
out our web site at http://www.dads.umn.edu."
- Refujio Rodriguez from the 'Los Compadres' Program in Santa Barbara,
California explained how his program involves males throughout their
development. "We now serve junior high schools and have leveraged money
from the probation department to continue our work with young men. In
addition, our program now serves adult men in our county jail and fathers
from Head Start. We also provide services to low income housing developments
in Spanish."
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Comments
on Strategy
- Forum Moderator Héctor Sánchez-Flores: "Our efforts
should not overlook the many young men in our communities who are not
fathers. Young men are seeking information about sex, sexual communication
and their bodies in a manner that resonates with them. If we are seeking
to reduce too early-unintended fatherhood and teen pregnancy, I feel
that primary prevention should be on everyone's radar screen. Secondary
pregnancy prevention, for those young men who have a child/children
should also emphasize the positive emotional support that fathers can
extend to their children."
- Wayne Pawlowski, Director of Training for PPFA (Planned Parenthood
Federation of America), offered the following general comments:
- "I am concerned about how many programs have the purpose of TEACHING
boys what their responsibility is. The implication is they don't
know. While they may not know the laws of their state, I think most
of them know what is expected if they are involved in an unintended
pregnancy... Problem is many can't get a job at all/get a job that
earns enough to make a meaningful contribution. Then we criticize
them/box them out for not providing enough.
- I keep hearing that there is not enough money to set up a meaningful,
fully supported, on-going program... then we criticize the guys
when they don't respond to what we do offer (less than meaningful
and not on-going).
- While I agree male staff are ideal for a male program, I would
rather have female staff (who can role model communication, comfort,
answer questions a guy can't, etc.) rather than have a male who
does not model the behaviors/attitudes that I would want to project.
- We have to honestly focus on and address the issues/needs/concerns
of guys if we want them to use our programs, not offer some of what
they need as bait to get them in so we can then 'educate' them about
our agenda for them."
- A participant who works with teens in a high school in Pasadena, California
agreed with Pawlowski's comments. "Young males are leery of adults scolding
them for their behavior, some of which are rights of passage. We, of
course, do not wish to extend impregnating young girls as part of this
ritual but we must approach them in a way that speaks to the issues
that they are struggling with..."
- Responding to Pawlowski's comments, Jan Hayne from DMAD said: "I believe
'some' boys need to better understand what their responsibility is when
they become fathers because they don't know. For kids growing up without
involved fathers, their male role models have been dads who leave, so
why should they stick around? I don't think we can assume 'most' of
them know. And while the emphasis on getting on a job and providing
financial support is important, we also need to let guys know how important
they are to their children in so many other ways besides money. There
are plenty of other reasons for them to 'be there' for their kids."
Following
up on previous comments, Forum Moderator Lori Rolleri asked: "One point
that I have heard several times during this forum is the importance of
providing young men with services they really need and want, not pushing
'our' agenda. What are some ways that all of you have assessed these needs?"
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker: "I have conducted some focus group
research with young and adult men about how they feel about health related
issues and how they might want reproductive health services catered
to them. I have also seen others use 1:1 interviews with men and women
and also with staff members and community leaders to find out more about
perceptions of reproductive health and health services."
"I think educators and youth-serving professionals can conduct
focus groups and research, but I believe it is extremely helpful to
have researchers and/or evaluators develop the research instruments
and evaluate the data."
"I think those wishing to conduct some research for their programs
or services do not have to invest too much to do it. I see doing this
research to help folks custom-tailor their programs, not so much to
speak on behalf on men's needs in general."
- Participant Jan Hayne said that their project assessed program needs
through focus groups. More information is available on their web site
under 'middle school curriculum' at: http://www.dads.umn.edu.
- Participant Wayne Pawlowski: "I agree with Rob (Becker) that focus
groups are a great tool for finding out what boys/men need/want. My
only 'however' is that in my experience, boys, in particular, think
they know what we want to hear and it often takes several go-rounds
on an issue before you get to what they are really thinking vs. what
they think they should say."
- Participant Susan Foster-Zdon agreed that focus groups sometimes give
us the answers "parroted" back to us at first. "I think questions for
focus groups need to be designed to bring forth more real answers. One
way that can be helpful is to ask their opinion about specific scenarios.
This gets away from the generalized statements that they heard in health
class."
- Forum Moderator Héctor Sánchez-Flores: "Wayne (Pawlowski)
touches on the point of behavior change or modification. Young men pick-up
on this very quickly and shy away from people that do not understand
their circumstances and struggles. I have listened to young men paint
a very different picture of their reality than what was shared by service
providers... While we are learning more about how clinical services
can resonate with males, organizations can have an internal dialogue
on whether they want to serve males in the first instance and not simply
blame them for not wanting to come in for services that were designed
to serve another group."
"Some service providers that reach teen mothers want the males
who 'caused' the pregnancy to be involved and supportive. Guess what?
Most of these young men also want to be involved and supportive. Perhaps
building the capacity of existing staff to better serve the specific
need of young men and teen fathers would be a good start."
"Finally, the beginning of male involvement is not the development
of a program. It is making the paradigm shift that young men are a part
of our communities and they, just like young women, need some services
in order to maintain their health, make positive contributions to their
community and achieve their personal goals. Ideally, this paradigm shift
should occur at the individual, organizational, and community levels
so that young men know that they are part of the solution, not simply
the problem."
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker said that the last thing the young and
adult men he worked with in Brooklyn, New York did was provide canned/parroted
answers. In fact, they went in the opposition direction. He added that
he thought the idea of providing scenarios (as previously mentioned
by participants) was a good one.
- A participant is starting a project that uses poetry (specifically
poetry with beats and rhymes) to involve male youth. "The theme of the
work will be about what it is like to be a young male and what fears,
frustrations and joys that they are experiencing at this time in their
lives."
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Recruiting
Males
A participant
from North Carolina asked for advice on recruiting participants into his
teen fatherhood program.
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker suggested the following web sites for
contacts regarding recruiting young fathers:
- Alex Fisher from the Texas Department of Health mentioned a school-based
program held a three-on-three basketball tournament that was very successful
for recruiting teen males. The health department's web site at http://www.Texasmalescare.org
includes a link to this program, which is called the East Austin Male
Involvement Project. She added that Dr. Peggy Smith of Baylor Medical
School has an article on recruitment that might be useful.
- Chris Coleman-Plourde, project coordinator for the Texas program previously
mentioned by Fisher, said they have been very successful with attracting
young men and keeping them in the program. "For starters, being school-based
and being a part of Communities In Schools (www.cisaustin.org ) has
been a huge asset for us... We also offer job readiness, mentoring,
support groups, health screenings, leadership development, peer ed,
family involvement. In addition to those services, we have been able
to tap into some funding for outdoor camping trips (which is a pretty
amazing experience with teenage boys)."
"Also, we've found that a great way to get young men connected
to the project is to put them in charge and to give them more responsibilities.
We have a leadership committee of 10 young men ... who work with the
staff in overseeing the project and plan events."
He added that the annual three-on-three basketball tourney has been
an excellent means of recruiting. "Presently, we have a difficult time
keeping up with all the referrals that we receive." The program's web
site is located at: http://www.geocities.com/xy_zone.
- A health educator from St. Paul, Minnesota said that their program
recruited many young men into a peer educator program by advertising
a 'job.' "We were able to pay the peer educators a stipend for their
time. The teens were very proud of their jobs — much more so than
if they had seen themselves as 'volunteers' — and it certainly
helped their resumes. Even if you can't afford to pay the fathers, there
are other ways of making their involvement seem professional and important,
such as printing business cards for the educators."
- Forum Moderator Héctor Sánchez-Flores asserted that
the best form of future recruitment is past performance. "The most successful
programs that I have seen actually have too many referrals and young
men that walk-in. The reason is that the education and collective team
have developed services and links to badly needed services. For example,
many male involvement projects link with job readiness and placement
programs. As a result, when a young man is told that he has a child
on the way, he is more likely to seek assistance in getting a job and
less likely to seek services that will make him a better father. But
he may visit an agency that can help him with both."
"The converse is also true. If a program says it will do something
for a young man and does not follow through, then word can spread that
the program is not what it says it is. Rebuilding a reputation is just
as hard for a program as it is for an individual."
Sánchez-Flores added that programs should NOT try to do all things
for all young men. Instead, developers should work with local area service
providers in developing male friendly services in areas that are needed
such as job readiness, school success, and clinical services.
- Forum Moderator Lori Rolleri stressed the importance of fully understanding
the communities we serve, especially their needs and concerns. "It also
means finding ways to be flexible and creative to meet those needs while
staying within the parameters of funding expectations and your organization's
mission."
- The participant from Australia said that, when they needed young men
to share their stories for a CD ROM, they advertised through a male
staff member at the local youth health center. In turn, the staff member
used the opportunity to get to know the young men and promote an on-going
young fathers' group. "It's still in its early days, but starting with
a purposeful and interesting project helped I think."
- Thomas Carver from Ventura, California said that he works with the
staff of the local juvenile detention centers to identify dads, and
then meets with them weekly. He also follows up with them after their
release. Many times, he works with their parole officers and/or the
judge to mandate participation in his program. "I act as a court advocate
often," he said. "Actually, I am now becoming a CASA (Court Appointed
Special Advocate) for my clients. This has given me more clout in the
Juvenile Courts as a sworn officer of the court."
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Resources
Forum Moderator
Robert Becker suggested the following web sites that "might be useful
in terms of finding some educational multi-media materials for working
with men:"
A counselor
who works with incarcerated youth in a Pennsylvania state institution
asked for ideas and resource materials on relationships, self-esteem,
responsibility, and decision making, as well as more specific information
on 'breaking the cycle of violence.'
- A participant suggested the Wise Guys curriculum available
through the Family Life Council, 336-333-6890.
- Forum Moderator Lori Rolleri suggested a Latino-specific program titled
Hombres Jovenes Con Palabra (Young Men with Word) by Jerry Tello
who is the Director of the Los Angeles-based National Latino Fatherhood
and Family Institute: 323-728-7770, ext. 18.
For information
on male-appropriate curricula, Forum Moderator Robert Becker referred
to the following pdf article: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/education/real/Selected.pdf
The coordinator
for Boston Teen Challenge Fund Coalition, a city-wide teen pregnancy prevention/youth
development effort, recommended a publication called Involving Males
in Preventing Teen Pregnancy: A Guide for Program Planners which is
distributed by the California Wellness Foundation and the Urban Institute.
You can find out more by contacting The Urban Institute at 2100 M Street,
NW Washington, D.C. 20037, (202) 857-8687, http://www.urban.org.
The publication covers information about several of the model curricula,
strategies for recruiting and keeping young men involved, and ideas for
dealing with the politics of targeting men (e.g., the issues of "taking"
money away from girls programming and doing prevention work in conservative
settings).
Forum Moderator
Héctor Sánchez-Flores suggested resources that "may assist
individuals or programs to develop services with young men in mind:"
- Multicultural Counseling with Teenage Fathers: A Practical Guide
Mark S. Kiselica [Sage Publications 1995]
- Working with Latino Youth: Culture, Development & Context
Joan D Koss-Chioino & Luis A. Vargas [Jossey-Bass 1999]
- Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, Counselors Can Help “Bad
Boys” Become Good Men
Aaron Kipnis, Ph.D. [Jossey-Bass 1999]
- Family Violence and Men of Color: Healing the Wounded Male Spirit
Ricardo Carrillo & Jerry Tello Editors [Springer 1998]
- Not Just for Girls: Involving Boys and Men in Teen Pregnancy Prevention
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy
- Turning the Corner on Father Absence in Black America
Morehouse Research Institute & Institute for American Values [1999]
- Readings on Men: Family Planning Perspectives 1987-1995
The Alan Guttmacher Institute [1996]
Jan Hayne
recommended Michael Obsatz's work on the seven traits of healthy masculinity.
It can be found at: http://www1.umn.edu/aurora/seventraits.html
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Discussion
of Terminology
Forum Moderator
Lori Rolleri asked Wayne Pawlowski, Director of Training for PPFA (Planned
Parenthood Federation of America), to talk about a presentation/workshop
he delivered on 'male responsibility.' "Would you talk a little about
who defines 'male responsibility' and 'male involvement' and how young
men learn what these terms mean? What is a more strength-based/male affirming
title to give programs such as the ones we are talking about on this forum?"
- Participant Wayne Pawlowski: "There is no objective set of expectations
for what constitutes appropriate 'involvement' and 'responsibility.'
As a result, guys, who are supposed to KNOW everything, find themselves
caught in a web of unclear and shifting expectations (many of which
they can not meet anyway) ...
Regarding better language: I have not identified more male-positive/affirming
terms, but I am convinced 'involvement' and 'responsibility' are not
good ones. I would be VERY interested in hearing others' thoughts on
language."
- Forum Moderator Robert Becker responded by offering the terms "male
participation" and "men as partners." "I think language is important,"
he added, "but as Wayne and Hector suggest, it is really more about
the framework and perspective organizations have when trying to consider
how to work with males."
- Another participant suggested the word "investment" instead of "involvement"
or "responsibility."
- Forum Moderator Lori Rolleri was not happy with the term "male involvement"
because the word "males" sounds too clinical and the entire phrase implies
that males are not already involved. She thought that perhaps a better
term for young men's programs would be "boys' development."
- Participant Refujio Rodriquez responded by saying: "I purposefully
use 'male involvement' because our program serves males of all ages.
In addition, if we assert that we are serving males, regardless
of age, then we also should recognize that we must also be prepared
to go beyond our scope of work and advocate for an increase in male
services that are sensitive and appropriate."
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