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Through our website, you can learn your rights as a taxpayer and parent as well as to which programs, monies and more you may be entitled...and why you may not be able to exercise these rights.

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Who We Are »
Betsy Combier

Help Us to Continue to Help Others »
Email: betsy.combier@gmail.com

 
The E-Accountability Foundation announces the

'A for Accountability' Award

to those who are willing to whistleblow unjust, misleading, or false actions and claims of the politico-educational complex in order to bring about educational reform in favor of children of all races, intellectual ability and economic status. They ask questions that need to be asked, such as "where is the money?" and "Why does it have to be this way?" and they never give up. These people have withstood adversity and have held those who seem not to believe in honesty, integrity and compassion accountable for their actions. The winners of our "A" work to expose wrong-doing not for themselves, but for others - total strangers - for the "Greater Good"of the community and, by their actions, exemplify courage and self-less passion. They are parent advocates. We salute you.

Winners of the "A":

Johnnie Mae Allen
David Possner
Dee Alpert
Aaron Carr
Harris Lirtzman
Hipolito Colon
Larry Fisher
The Giraffe Project and Giraffe Heroes' Program
Jimmy Kilpatrick and George Scott
Zach Kopplin
Matthew LaClair
Wangari Maathai
Erich Martel
Steve Orel, in memoriam, Interversity, and The World of Opportunity
Marla Ruzicka, in Memoriam
Nancy Swan
Bob Witanek
Peyton Wolcott
[ More Details » ]
 
A Successful 'Turn the Curve' Strategy: The Story of Teen Pregnancy and Tillamook County, Oregon
A For Accountability: once accurate information is gathered on a problem, the community rallies around solutions and strategies to change habits for the health and welfare of the people it serves
          
A Successful "Turn the Curve" Strategy
How Tillamook County, Oregon Did it:


See also:
1. Graph: Teen Pregnancy Rates 1990 - 1994
2. Newspaper articles and materials from the Tillamook County Health Department

In 1990 the teen pregnancy rate in Tillamook county was 24 per 1,000 girls 10 - 17, worse than all but 5 of the state's 36 counties. Beginning that year, and continuing to the present, community leaders in Tillamook fashioned a community-wide strategy to change this condition. The strategy was simple: Get everyone - churches, public and private agencies, schools, health workers and families - to acknowledge the problem and commit themselves to doing whatever they can to change it. The controversial nature of the challenge was actually turned into an asset. The widely different views of leaders and the institutions they represented helped motivate the community to get involved.
Between 1990 and 1994, the teen pregnancy rate decreased to 7.1 per 1,000 girls 10 - 17, the best rate in the state. Tillamook county does not attribute this success to any particular service, but rather to the combined effects of the community efforts. These included:
- Schools: added self esteem and sexuality education to their curriculum
- Churches: worked at opening up communication channels with teens, taught refusal skills and promoted abstinence.
- County Health Department: With support from the County Commissioners, the department expanded clinic hours and changed policy to assure that any teen who called the health department for information or services would be seen within 48 hours (not two to three weeks previous practice)
- YMCA: sponsored a "teens at risk" program, providing recreation activities which kept teens busy and built self esteem.
- Community College: worked with teens through the Tillamook Teen Parent Program to prevent second unintended pregnancies.
- Commission on Children and Families: funded teen pregnancy prevention curriculum in the schools as well as counseling and support groups.
- The Tillamook County General Hospital, with other partners, opened "Healthy Families of Tillamook County," a home visiting and parenting program for all newborns.
Other partners included the Women's Crisis Center, the Tillamook Family Counseling Center, the Tillamook Bay Child Care Center, the Tillamook Bay Community College, and others.
According to the Health Department summary, Tillamook county "found that forming partnerships and working together toward a desired result can bring about astounding results. ... Their turn-around was an evolutionary process, with new partners bringing contributions forward at different times." Given a catalyst and a targeted focus on a desired result, the same process can occur in other communities.
Excerpt from "A Strategy Map for Results Based Budgeting," The Finance Project, September, 1996 (see Resources and References).

 
© 2003 The E-Accountability Foundation