NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts is a founding member of the Sexual Health Network for Boston Youth, a coalition committed to improving the sexual health information and services available to teens in Boston. It is made up of over 30 organizations, including community organizations, health centers, hospitals, education providers, and city departments (Boston Public Health Commission and Boston Public Schools).

This is an important time to join forces — the current political atmosphere provides an unprecedented opportunity for policy change at the community level. We recently selected Jamaica Plain as our first pilot community and have begun meeting with community partners to create a vision for sexual health for youth in the neighborhood.

The overall vision of the Network is for Boston youth to have access to the reproductive health information and services they need to lead sexually healthy lives. Fulfilling this urgent need among teens and achieving greater health equity requires a sustained and coordinated effort from health care providers, schools, youth organizations, advocacy organizations, and public health officials.

The Network's goals include:

The need is real. 56% of teens in Boston are having sex before they're 18 (1), and teen pregnancy is the leading cause of dropout in high school (2). Currently, there is not a consistent curriculum for sexual health education in Boston Public Schools.The Sexual Health Network for Boston Youth is working on a community level to ensure that youth have the resources they need to stay safe and make healthy decisions.