Community Education and Advocacy: Student's Name Affiliation Course Instructor Date
Community Education and Advocacy: Student's Name Affiliation Course Instructor Date
Community Education and Advocacy: Student's Name Affiliation Course Instructor Date
Student’s name
Affiliation
Course
Instructor
Date
2
Introduction
Community education and advocacy help to bring awareness to society and address
social issues within the society. Community education consolidates its members in society by
teaching them the values and morals of the society while equipping them with skills necessary to
communicate their views to change policy resulting in a system change. Advocacy agents look
for evidence to make their case in order to compel change. Advocates influences change within
Teenage Pregnancy
Teenage pregnancies are a social issue that brings negative consequences to teenagers
and their families. The main cause of teenage pregnancy is, insufficient sexual education,
inadequate parental care, and communication, peer pressure, and poverty among other factors. In
many cases, the pregnancy is unplanned and unwanted and they are also prone to complications.
This is a contributing factor to high maternal mortality in both obstetric complications and unsafe
abortion (Odland, 2018). Teenagers are prone to making wrong choices without thinking about
the consequences of their actions which end up affecting them, their families, and society
negatively. The pregnancy causes the teenager to put their plans on hold until the baby is born
for example going to college. Pregnant young teenagers might be rejected by their families and
friends which causes low self-esteem and self-worth which can lead to depression and mental
health problems. Teenage pregnancies increase the financial burden on their families because
they cannot support themselves financially. Their families especially their parents feel
3
disappointed because it makes them rearrange their lives to include a new family member.
Teenage pregnancy is a causation factor of low educational attainment and low income for
teenage mothers. It also causes a loss of revenue for the government because of increased costs
in healthcare and foster care. Teenage pregnancy is linked with higher social-economic
disadvantage, mental health issues, and substance abuse (Wong et al., 2020).
Human service professionals encounter a lot of challenges in ensuring the healthy and
positive development of all youth (Mohr et al., 2019). Social workers can help to reduce teenage
pregnancy by advocating for the attainment of higher education levels among teenagers.
Uneducated teenagers are more likely to get pregnant because they do not have the necessary
knowledge on how it can have negative impacts on their life, their families, and society.
Teenagers with lower levels of education or who are not in school are more likely to get pregnant
(Mohr et al., 2019). Human service professionals can advocate for support systems for families
which cannot afford tuition money by helping them acquire scholarships. They should also be
engaged in the community school systems to help enact policies that will lead to the attainment
of quality education which will equip teenagers with the necessary skills for life.
Counseling teenagers is another way social workers can advocate for teenage
teenagers should be educated about reproductive health, the risk of unprotected sex, sexually
transmitted infections (STIs), and early pregnancy. Social workers should form groups where
they will provide teenagers with sex information. Community members, families, and teenagers
should all be engaged in the topic of teenage pregnancy without any resistance and prejudice.
Teenagers feel that confidentiality in sexual and reproductive health is important and appreciate
4
relationships with providers that are friendly and nonjudgmental (Berlan et al., 2020). Social
workers should ensure they give all the necessary information required to provide the teenagers
with all the knowledge on how to become responsible members of society. Counseling will go a
long way in helping to curb teenage pregnancies since each teenager both girls and boys will be
understanding and sustained by participation to build new awareness and concepts to improve
the quality of life of the community (Ardiwinata & Mulyono, 2018). Community education
provides support to community members by solving their social problems such as educational
needs through education. Human service professionals can use community education forums to
spread awareness about teenage pregnancies. Social workers can organize workshops where
community workers will engage through conversation on how they can eradicate teenage
pregnancies. Workshops will provide information to teenagers, parents, and the community
while teaching teenagers safe sexual behaviors. Workshops will enhance collaboration with all
the stakeholders in the community making it easier to prevent the vice and spread awareness.
pregnancies. Community education equips its community members with personal skills, and
strengths, and provides awareness on how it can be applied to help them plan their future.
Teenagers are advised on how to practice safe sex. Through community education, families and
members of the community are provided with the necessary information which will come in
5
handy when guiding to help the youth to make better choices involving sexual behaviors. On the
other hand, advocacy helps to bring change by influencing policy at a level at which the
community might not have the power or resources to do so. Advocacy will help to spread
awareness that teenage pregnancy is not only a personal problem but a societal problem as well.
Getting the attention of, local representatives, large organizations, and governments is a complex
and hard prospect however advocates have the knowledge and skills as well as methods of how
to reach them. This can help in acquiring funds to organize workshops to provide awareness and
counseling and also pay for school fees for needy families.
teenage sexual health and teen pregnancy prevention. According to the organization’s website,
the organization uses advocacy, collaboration, and training to create public awareness. The
organization raises awareness of the impact of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted
infections (STIs) on teenage sexual health and provides strategies to improve the health
outcomes of teenagers. This organization has proved that advocacy can help the issue of teenage
support. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducts community-wide initiatives
in collaboration with the federal Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) and Office of Population
Affairs (OPA) to educate and show the effectiveness of community-wide initiatives in reducing
teenage pregnancy. They mobilize the community and provide training, education, and engage
Conclusion
Teenagers are the future of every society therefore it is important to ensure their future
ensuring that each member of society gives their opinions on issues and provides ideas on how to
solve societal problems like teenage pregnancy while being educated at the same time. Advocacy
provides a platform where the community is allowed to take part in the decision-making of
important matters in society and create awareness within the community itself and also outside
community boundaries.
7
References
Ardiwinata, J. S., & Mulyono, D. (2018). Community Education in the development of The
http://e-journal.stkipsiliwangi.ac.id/index.php/empowerment/article/view/661
Berlan, E. D., Richards, M. J., Vieira, C. S., Creinin, M. D., Kaunitz, A. M., Fraser, I. S.,
Edelman, A., & Mansour, D. (2020). Best practices for counseling adolescents about the
454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpag.2020.06.022
Hoefer, R. (2019). Advocacy practice for social justice. Oxford University Press, USA.
Mohr, R., Carbajal, J., & Sharma, B. B. (2019). The influence of educational attainment on
1176. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061176
Wong, S. P., Twynstra, J., Gilliland, J. A., Cook, J. L., & Seabrook, J. A. (2020). Risk factors
and birth outcomes associated with teenage pregnancy: A Canadian sample. Journal of
159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpag.2019.10.006