The steering committee gathered all of the information that we have collected thus far and pulled them together into the three topics for the project.  We decided to organize the project into a three-year progression.  The first year we would implement the Teen Pregnancy and Parenting topic with several community service projects.  The second year we would continue to develop and expand that first topic and implement the Environment topic with its own community service projects.  The third year we would add the Homelessness topic while we continue to expand the first two topics.

These are the topic lists we created:

Teen Pregnancy and Parenting

Purchases possible:

  • Videos
  • Think it Over Babies
  • Knitting needles and yarn
  • Curriculum development costs
  • Website expenses
  • Advertising

 Curriculum:

  • Finding free things
  • Birth control – how to get, education about
  • STD’s – testing
  • How to have a conversation with your boyfriend/girlfriend
  • Abstinence support
  • Teen dating violence
  • Abuse (from parents, boyfriend, others) – dealing with it, what is it?
  • Breastfeeding
  • Social services support
  • Self-esteem – valuing yourself
  • Ways out of a bad homelife (pregnancy is not the answer)
  • Relationships instruction
  • Divorce
  • Live-in boyfriends (with mom)
  • Family situations including substance abuse
  • Culture of poverty, cycles of ….behavior
  • 1st sexual experience
  • Health 
  • Substance use and pregnancy
  • safety
  • History of teen pregnancy – why it’s changed
  • Rape, date-rape, acquaintance rape
  • General parenting issues
  • Media impact on teen pregnancy and parenting
Community service:
  • Build a website with video blogs (prevention, too)
  • Forum for support on website
  • Knitting instruction (knit infant hats for hospitals)
  • Walk-a-thons to raise awareness
  • Child care during GRADS meetings
  • Walking tour of support organizations in each community (soundseeing tour)
  • Diaper pantry
  • Peer talk board
  • Daycare for job searches
  • Assist teen parenting house?
  • Support groups
Partners:
  • GRADS
  • WIC
  • Help Me Grow
  • Planned Parenthood
  • Health Department
  • LaLeche League
  • Clothes Closets and Food Banks
  • Church groups
  • Flying Horse Farms
Environment of your World
Purchases possible:
Curriculum:
  • Bird conservation
  • Invasive species
  • Alternative Energy
  • Horticulture 
  • Lost arts of previous times (cleaning with lemon peels, etc.)
  • Design challenges (collecting rainwater, solar air conditioner, “green” tool shed)
Community Service:
Partners:
  • AEP
  • Consolidated Electric
  • Ohio Edison
  • Soil and Water
  • Headwaters
  • Mount Gilead State Park
  • Kingwood Center
  • Ohio EPA
  • Dept of Natural Resources
  • Ohio Bird Sanctuary
Homelessness
Purchases possible:
Curriculum:
  • Personal Finances
  • Real-life problem solving
  • finding a job
  • Job behavior
  • Money management (how much in savings)
  • Planning for future
  • Finding deals
  • Budgeting
  • Luxury Item purchases (rent to own) (Suze Orman)
  • Wants vs. needs
  • Leases, Land contracts
  • Scams – confirming good deals
  • Financing and refinancing
  • Credit cards
  • Banking online how-to; debit cards
  • Fees @ banking
  • Who is homeless?
  • What is homelessness?
  • Cycle of poverty
  • Culture of poverty – recognizing it and breaking it
  • 18 is the magic number – not!
    • cost of independent living
    • planning a good transition
Community Service:
Partners:
  • UMADOAP (Urban Minority Alcohol and Drug Outreach
  • Junior Achievement
  • Banks – Mechanics Bank, Richland Bank, Credit Unions
  • Harmony House
  • Habitat for Humanity
  • OC Hill – community outreach with workshops
  • Western Union