Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Youth Leadership Task Force in the News!

D.C. Students Take To Youtube To Talk Teen Pregnancy
Courtney Collins

April 13, 2011 - The DC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy is teaching a group of teen girls to be peer educators and giving them a chance to star in their own short films at the same time.
The teenagers are members of the Campaign's Youth Leadership Task Force, which enables young people to work to increase awareness among their friends and classmates about teen pregnancy.
Every few weeks, this group of girls produce their own video with a message. They've developed a "Teen Talk" sessions with real students discussing real issues, and also a "Trending Topics" series in which they act out scenarios that students are facing every day. In the past, they've tackled heavy topics like bullying and unprotected sex.
The students are filming their latest installment this week. While the process is involved, Program Manager Erica McKinney says the girls do it all themselves.
"Script, write, edit, produce and film their own videos that talk about their own personal experiences and experiences that other teens in D.C. are affected by," McKinney says.
The current video is about body image, and helping teens embrace their imperfections. One of the students, Nya, says working on this video is a great way to reach teens that would normally turn away from this kind of advice if it came from an adult.
"So as a group of teenagers we can say, 'we know what you're doing right now and we can relate to you because were a teenager too,'" Nya says.
The Youth Leadership Task Force video program is open to high school aged girls. The group meets weekly at two locations: the Campaign's offices in Shaw and the Woodson High School 9th Grade Academy, currently located in Ronald H. Brown Middle School.