Boys and Girls Club of Washington County and Community Free Clinic Awarded Teen Pregnancy Prevention Funds
The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Fund, a component fund of the Community Foundation of Washington County MD, presented its seventh annual grant to two local nonprofits the Boys and Girls Club of Washington County, and Community Free Clinic alongside fund founder Carrol Lourie. Each grant will support educational programming that addresses teen pregnancy and unsafe sex practices amongst teens. Both organizations were awarded $750.
Boys and Girls Club of Washington County received their grant to support SMART Girls, a health, fitness, prevention/education and self-esteem enhancement program for girls ages 8-18 that encourages healthy attitudes and lifestyles. Activities include field trips, workshops, speakers, and other events.
“Our teen pregnancy program [SMART Girls] serves kids aged 8 through 18, and there’s a whole course on pregnancy prevention. Knowing is half the battle. Exposing kids to that information gets them there,” said Boys and Girls Club of Washington County’s Development Director EJ Fuller. He also shared information on how these funds will also support BGCWC’s Passport to Manhood, which promotes and teaches responsibility in boys aged 8 through 18.
Community Free Clinic of Washington County received their grant to support Youth Overcoming Life's Obstacles (YOLO), a reproductive health program that's just one of the services Washington County teens and young adults are in the most need of. This further's the Clinic's mission to maintain a program that helps with family planning through access to birth control, free health resources, and testing. This program's outreach involves attending community-wide health events, fairs, and YMCA community functions, as well as providing informational flyers at community health centers and with our local healthcare system, Meritus Medical Center.
“Our program sees 13-24 year olds; it’s a sexual reproductive health [program]. We do pregnancy testing, we do birth control, we do STI treatments, because not only is teen pregnancy up again, but STIs are as well. We do everything sexual health related,” said Community Free Clinic of Washington County Executive Director Nicole Houser.
"These are fund that were started when the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition became Teens Have Choices, and when that ultimately folded, these funds remained which helped to create this fund so that the issue of teen pregnancy prevention could remain an important one," said Lourie during the awarding of these grants.