Solution to Teenage Pregnancy. The

¶ … solution to teenage pregnancy. The writer owns a business in the heart of Philadelphia and hires many teen girls who become pregnant. The writer examines the problem from a hand on perspective and then proposes a solution to be implemented immediately. Teen pregnancy has been an issue in America for many years. While the rate of teen pregnancy has actually declined since 1991, America still has the highest percentage of teen pregnancies in the world. Today, 35 out of every 100 teenagers become pregnant before they reach the age of 20.

It is a national problem and one that has hit the Philadelphia as well. Teen pregnancy in this area has become a problem. Even though the school system teaches a teen living class, teenagers are still becoming pregnant and having babies. A new solution is needed and one that can be implemented as quickly as possible. Teen living classes are something that are mandated by the school system.

Teenagers are there because they have to be and the lessons being taught are homework driven and looked at as school not real life. It is important to reach the teens outside of the school environment and help them make decisions that will prevent teen pregnancies from occurring whether that is from abstinence of birth control (Albert, 2003). Teen centers aimed at giving teens life choices need to be implemented across the city.

Teen centers are places where teenagers can come to hang out after school, in the evening and on the weekends (Koshar, 2001). The teen centers need to offer a combination of fun things to do and life lessons about responsibility. Offering the fun things to do is what will bring the teens into the center, and then they will be more willing to participate in the responsibility part of the program.

The teen centers need to be staffed by adults, and they need to include adults who had babies as teens as well as young adults who chose to abstain as teens. This will give a fair and accurate balance of input and opinion to the teens who come to the center for guidance. Many teens who become pregnant or get someone pregnant enjoy taking risks. One of the things the center can offer is risk activities that are productive.

Monthly trips to go white water rafting or hiking should be conducted with admission being the cost of attending a predetermined number of teen life choice classes. If a teen wants to attend the white water rafting trip for example he or she can be expected to attend two job readiness classes and three teen pregnancy classes before being allowed to go white water rafting. The teen pregnancy classes will consist of learning about contraceptives, learning about abstinence and learning about the cost of having and raising a child.

In addition, each participant will be paired with a teen mother or teen father volunteer to shadow for 48 hours. This will serve as real life experience about being a teen parent, before actually becoming one. The teen parent volunteers will be provided free activities in exchange for their participation in the program. Members of the community will be recruited to volunteer as advocates and mentors to the teens who belong to the center.

The teens will be encouraged to shadow the adults on their jobs and in their lives to see alternatives to becoming teenage parents and to encourage them to have goals and ambitions other than sex. The center will provide a nurse practitioner once a week to handle check ups and birth control needs. In addition the center will provide condoms for free.

The center will also set up a 24-hour hotline for teens to call with any problem they have so that they do not feel they have no one to talk to or turn to other than a romantic partner. The people who are against anything but abstinence may object to the teen center and believe it promotes teenage sex,.