County ads focus on pregnancy prevention

The idea behind the county welfare agency's campaign is that fewer teen moms will lead to fewer welfare clients.

By LISA GREENE

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 23, 2001

The voices coming from the radio grab attention.

They are children's voices, plaintive and vulnerable. A different kid speaks every line: "Mom. Dad. I need you."

"I need to know about sex."

"Help me make the right choices."

The ads are blanketing Pinellas radio stations, TV channels and shopping mall kiosks. Some counsel parents, while others target teens. They are catchy, fast-paced and memorable -- and they are not paid for by a pregnancy prevention outfit or a teen support group.

These ads come from WorkNet Pinellas -- the county welfare agency in charge of helping the jobless find jobs.

So why do they care what your kid is doing on Friday nights?

Because if your child is out making babies today, she is more likely to come to WorkNet nine months from now.

That's after she has dropped out of school, has no job and a baby to support.

Nearly 80 percent of American teenage mothers wind up on welfare, says the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

"Teen pregnancy doesn't affect one socioeconomic level," said Stefanie Anna, a WorkNet policy manager. "But if they go on welfare, those are our kids."

So WorkNet is spending $460,000 of state funding on an ad campaign. The theory: Fewer teen moms means fewer welfare clients.

"We're trying to work ourselves out of business," Anna said jokingly.

The ads generated surprise and then approval from some local officials. County Commissioner Ken Welch was flipping the radio dial searching for sports scores when he happened across one of the ads, featuring girls talking about what they could achieve without a baby in tow.

A similar version runs on television, starting with a teenage girl looking into the camera and saying, "If I don't get pregnant as a teenager ... ," and others suggest it will be easier for them to reach their goals.

Another girl begins: "If I wait to have sex. ..." The responses include: "I'll become the first black president." "My name will be in lights." "I'll dance on the moon."

And one more voice says: "If I give myself the chance."

"Those are the kind of ads that really get your attention," Welch said.

But even he was surprised to hear the WorkNet tag line and learn that the ad was paid for by a county agency.

"It wasn't necessarily a business-oriented ad," the kind he would have expected from WorkNet, Welch said. "But when you think about it, one of the biggest problems that young folks have with finishing school and getting their diploma -- it's teen pregnancy."

Mary Bennett, coordinator for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Partnership, praised WorkNet's involvement.

"It makes a lot of sense to me," Bennett said. "Just based on the fact that a pregnancy, for both boys and girls, really compromises their career and employment opportunities."

WorkNet's campaign was prompted by the new goals of welfare reform, Anna said. The centerpiece of the 1996 welfare reform is to limit the amount of time people spend on welfare and help them find work. But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists another major goal: preventing unwed pregnancies.

Workforce Central Florida, the welfare agency for the Orlando area, began a similar campaign in 1998. But nationally, most agencies that bought the campaign materials used by WorkNet Pinellas are non-profit groups or government health departments.

"It's very forward-thinking, but it's also common sense," said Bronwyn Mayden of WorkNet Pinellas' decision.

Mayden is executive director of Campaign for Our Children Inc., the Baltimore-based non-profit corporation that produces the ads being used by WorkNet and by Workforce Central Florida. Its ads are the centerpiece of pregnancy prevention campaigns in Maryland, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and other areas. The group points out that teen pregnancy rates have dropped faster in Maryland, where the campaign began, than any other state in the nation.

The group has deliberately tried to stay away from the controversy that often surrounds talking to teens about sex, Mayden said. The teen pregnancy ads counsel teens to "wait," but they don't say whether to wait until marriage. They encourage parents to talk to their kids about sex but leave it up to parents to discuss abstinence or birth control.

"The political bickering around this issue hasn't helped kids," Mayden said. "Kids have gotten pregnant while the bickering goes on. We wanted to go below that radar."

Even so, the campaign's award-winning ads aim to have an edge. One of the other ads playing in Pinellas shows a teenage boy talking about why his girlfriend broke up with him.

She wanted a guy who wouldn't pressure her for sex, he says. A nice guy. Then he stops. What does that make me? he asks.

And then a rat scurries across the screen.

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