When I talked with Kate Westaby a couple of weeks ago for my post about the Young Parent Collective, she suggested I also create a post about the Healthy Teen Network, which she has partnered with for Young Parent Collective programs. I’ve done research on their site for my book about teaching teen moms, just published last week, so I consider it a trustworthy organization that benefits teen moms. It’s a great resource for all teens, though.
The National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting (NOAPP) was formed in 1979 with a mission to support pregnant and parenting teen girls. Eventually, prevention was added to their mission. Now called Healthy Teen Network (HTN), the organization encompasses a broad range of advocacy efforts, educational resources, and programs to help teens have healthy physical and emotional lives. While reproductive rights are still at the core of their activities, HTN also encourages healthy relationships of all types while providing critical information about sexuality, gender, and identity.
Healthy Teen Network lists seven guiding principles on their website: Rights, Inclusivity, Youth 360°, Evidence, Innovation, Youth Centered, and Access. Each principle prioritizes the right of teens to be who they are, love who they love, and care for their bodies as they feel is right for them. HTN strives to be accessible through providing many programs for the teens it serves.
A central feature of the HTN is the learning opportunities they provide. They plan an annual conference and offer shorter-term trainings both in-person and online throughout the year. They will even customize a training for another organization. Whatever topic is of interest to teens, they can provide training about it. Examples include contraception, anatomy and physiology, co-parenting, healthy relationships, and STIs and HIV.
HTN is responsive to the teens who depend on them by creating or enhancing existing services. They partner with other organizations to assist in providing programming of interest to the partnering agency. This is a feature of HTN that can enhance the Young Parent Collective to broaden their programs for teen clients in Madison, Wisconsin and many other communities.
Another element of HTN is the technology they use to help young people access information online about sexuality or to answer sensitive questions they may have. Their web resources are designed to be easy for teens to use and find helpful information on. Research into design of apps, websites, and bots helps them create social media and dating app-based behavior changes. This is an example of meeting young people where they’re often found—on their phones.
While HTN understands the importance of empowering young people to protect their sexual and reproductive health in a no-judgement zone, some people in teens’ lives may not be on board with this degree of openness. Parents may be hesitant to discuss certain topics with their children. For this reason, HTN advocates for teens through social media campaigns and make use of channels not available to the teens themselves to promote healthy teen lifestyles, geared toward the adults around them. They can recruit and build champions for the causes that affect teens and bring coalitions together to support them.
The HTN website is chock-full of resources on dozens of topics for teens and those who care about them. Teens can access scientific information about sexual health on their own or community groups can use them to interact with the teens in their orbit. HTN will provide trainings to groups as well. Whatever it takes to generate more informed and more confident healthy teens, the Healthy Teen Network is on it.
Janice Airhart 