Portland, OR – March 26, 2009 – Three Oregon teens, active in Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette’s (PPCW) Teen Council program, travel today to the National Planned Parenthood Young Leaders Summit in Houston, Texas to share their expertise with teens from around the nation. Sylvia Arinze, Joanna Zavala, and Jessica Bañuelos were chosen as three of approximately 50 teens nationally to participate in this conference to coordinate teen education and advocacy initiatives in 2009 and beyond.
Oregon’s three representatives, traveling with PPCW’s Youth Programs Manager Camelia Hison, will also be presenting at the conference on their experience using MySpace and other programs to engage peers in safe spaces and increase access to relevant, accurate, and age-appropriate reproductive and sexual health information. Summit participants will learn from each other as well as expert trainers the best practices of teen advocacy and education. Teen leaders will discuss health care reform, sex education initiatives, and reproductive justice advocacy at the conference, and later extend these conversations back home in their communities.
“These young women have chosen to take an active role in reducing Oregon’s teen pregnancy and STD rates among their peers,” said Laura Horwitz, PPCW’s Vice President of Education. “It is a huge honor for them to be selected to attend this national conference, and we’re excited for them to share tips with and learn from teens around the country.”
Oregon area teens attending the Planned Parenthood Youth Leaders Summit:
Sylvia Arinze, a senior at Aloha high school, is actively involved with Amnesty International, the Gay-Straight Alliance, Model United Nations and Diversity Club. She is an educator for Planned Parenthood as a member of the Teen Council, a facilitator of PPCW’s Making Proud Choice curriculum, and a participant in the Sistas, Informing, Healing, Living, Empowering (SiHLE) program, designed to educate African American females in urban areas about various aspects of sexual health, and increase their feelings of self-esteem and control. Sylvia will pursue international studies this fall at Macalester College on a full scholarship.
Joanna Zavala joined PPCW’s Teen Council to learn more about sexual health and how to help her peers make healthy, informed choices. A Gresham high school junior, Joanna also works with ALMAS, a young women’s mentoring group, and with an organization devoted to developing leadership among young Latinos. Joanna hopes her training with Planned Parenthood will enable her to better educate her community about sexual and reproductive health care.
Jessica Bañuelos has dedicated her free time to PPCW’s Teen Council program and L.U.C.H.A, an organization helping local immigrants. Woodburn High School, where Jessica is a senior, has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Oregon. She has seen the impact teen pregnancy has had on her friends and classmates lives, and she hopes to empower her peers by educating them about their sexual health.
PPCW’s Teen Council program, launched in 2004, empowers youth to become sexual and reproductive health education leaders in their schools and communities. Students participating in the program are trained to reach their peers through formal classroom education, informal peer-to-peer contact, and community outreach events. Last year alone, this program reached 10,000 teens in Oregon.
To learn more about Planned Parenthood’s education opportunities, visit http://www.ppcw.org/ or contact education@ppcw.org.
Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette (PPCW) is the largest non-profit family planning and reproductive rights organization in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Since 1963, PPCW has successfully carried out its mission of providing, promoting and protecting access to quality reproductive and sexual health care. Each year, almost 60,000 women, men and teens visit one of PPCW’s health centers. We provide a wide range of education programs and health care services, including low-cost contraceptives, emergency contraception, annual gynecological check-ups, breast exams, cervical cancer detection and treatment, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and pregnancy testing and options counseling. Approximately five percent of PPCW’s services are for first term abortion care. For more information, visit www.ppcw.org.
