Youthtopia

Santa Cruz, CA, 2002

“After my presentation a girl just pulled me aside. She was 15 weeks pregnant and looked like a wreck. I asked her what she would do after the baby was born. She said she would drop out of school and raise her kid and try to get back to school, but she said that was a small possibility.” —Brian Vasquez, 16 year-old Peer Counselor, Everett Alvarez High School, Salinas, California.

Brian Vasquez is a peer counselor who spends his spare time talking to teens about birth control and safe sex. Vasquez is trying to reduce his school's teen pregnancy rate, which ranks first in its school district. Monterey County has a teen pregnancy rate that is 20 percent higher than any other county in California. Many area youth are involved with drugs, gangs and other risky behaviors that impact their well-being.

KUSP-FM, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and KION-TV Channel 46 joined forces to engage youth and their parents in a dialog about issues related to reproductive health, substance abuse, violence and health care access, and stimulate action toward improving conditions for youth in the region. Youthtopia included 12 radio programs and extensive regional outreach—combining the outreach expertise of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte with the high-quality public affairs programs produced by KUSP.

The partners created a monthly 60-minute youth hosted teen health newsmagazine, with call-ins, news features, interviews, music and town hall meetings. Topics of discussion included abortion, STDs, substance abuse and conflict resolution in schools.

Planned Parenthood's outreach activities included writing a weekly Q&A column for youth newspapers and identifying radio show guests. KION-TV produced parallel coverage on its nightly newscast.

Awards:

KUSP Round Four
$3,000 for Youthtopia teen producers to attend Third Coast Festival — from Third Coast Festival

$10,000 bridge grant — Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County

KUSP Round Three
$10,000 to continue Youthtopia programming and expand outreach to south Santa Cruz County — from Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County

$800 for youth to attend March, 2004 Youth Conference — from anonymous donors

$2,500 for program continuation with a focus on reproductive health — from West Marine of Watsonville, CA