Who:               Knox Adolescent Partners in Prevention Initiative (KAPPI), Knox County Health Department (KCHD), TennCare Kids

 

What:              Teaching Teens Outstanding Parenting Skills (T-TOPS) Conference

 

When:             Tuesday, Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

 

Where:            St John’s Lutheran Church, 544 N. Broadway

 

Interviews:     KCHD TennCare Kids Manager Charlayne Frazier will be available

 

                       

Background:

 

What began as an effort to keep teen parents in school has grown into an annual conference on educating and supporting pregnant teens and teen parents. T-TOPS is designed to encourage teens to stay in school, graduate and not repeat a pregnancy while in high school. Workshop topics include healthy relationships and choices, managing stress, and preventing substance and tobacco use.

 

While teen pregnancy rates have been decreasing over the past several years, the rates in the U.S. are still substantially higher than other western industrialized nations. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 50 percent of teen mothers graduate from high school. In addition, children of teen parents are more likely to have lower school achievement, experience unemployment, have more health problems and be incarcerated at some point during adolescence.

 

Conference partners include KCHD, TennCare Kids, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, the City of Knoxville’s Save Our Sons Initiative, Knox County Schools, Great Schools Partnership’s Parents As Teachers Program, Child Care Resource and Referral Tennessee Network, University of Tennessee Medical Center, University of Tennessee Extension, and Smoke-Free Knoxville.

 

For more information contact Katharine Killen at 865-215-5534 (office) or 865-755-1121 (cell).