Who helped you get the information you needed as a teen? Who looks to you? Be that person right now.
Communities often have a hard time talking about sex. And yet, sexual health is a critical part of a young person's overall health. For young people, accessing basic information about their bodies - as well as the healthcare and support they need to stay healthy - can be hard. When adults fail to build those systems, we see unplanned pregnancies; high gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV rates; and struggles with relationships, development, or their sexuality.
The good news is that there are smart, proven best practices to support young people's sexual health in age-appropriate ways. SHIFT NC works with communities to help young people grow up healthy. We do this by focusing on key strategic priorities:
- Promoting high quality, effective sex education;
- Helping healthcare providers become teen-friendly and promoting healthcare access;
- Thoughtfully addressing the needs of our most vulnerable youth by training adult allies LGBTQ youth and helping professionals address trauma; and
- Helping parents and communities have more productive conversations about sexual health.
This approach works! Since our founding, the state's teen pregnancy rates have dropped more than 70%! When we expanded our mission to cover all of adolescent sexual health, we did it knowing that we could make an impact on issues like STDs and relationships. But we need you...
Increasingly, our services are under threat - whether it's a federal shift toward "abstinence-only-until-marriage" education or the small but vocal - and emboldened minority that opposes sex education, access to contraception, and LGBTQ youth.
When you give to SHIFT NC, you are supporting North Carolina young people by helping the adults in their lives address a critical part of overall health: their sexual health. Thanks for being a part of an amazing movement to help young people grow up healthy.