click the image to read the entire article!
From the National Coalition of Girls Schools:
MA Governor’s Office and Stoneleigh-Burnham School Host Panel to Discuss Reproductive Health and Politics
12/19/14—Stoneleigh-Burnham School and the Massachusetts governor’s office brought two local experts on women’s issues to discuss reproductive health and politics with students. Dr. Sarah Perez McAdoo, co-founder and director of the Youth Empowerment Adolescent Health (YEAH!) Network, and Sarah Carlan, social worker and board member of MotherWoman, spoke with a combined class of 18 Upper School students in International Baccalaureate (IB) Biology and Anatomy and Physiology.
“Despite advances in women’s rights, the discrimination and social issues affecting mothers remains,” Stephanie Slysz, a fellow in the governor’s office who organized the event, said. “Our goal is to add depth to the Stoneleigh-Burnham students’ upcoming unit on the reproductive system as we translate the science into social issues, effective programs, and policy.”
http://www.ncgs.org/NewsAndEvents/newsArchive.aspx#639
From the Greenfield Recorder:
Women’s issues experts: Progress requires working together
Dr. Sarah Pereze McAdoo, co-founder and director of the Youth Empowerment Adolescent Health Network, and Sarah Carlan, a board member of MotherWoman, discuss reproductive health and politics at Stoneleigh-Burnham Schoool. Photo by Mark Kaschack of Stoneleigh-Burnham School.
By KATHLEEN MCKIERNAN Recorder Staff
Thursday, December 4, 2014
(Published in print: Friday, December 5, 2014)
GREENFIELD — Communities, and women in particular, face a number of challenges, from slow economic growth, high rates of teen pregnancy and balancing careers with new babies to trying to afford it all. But it is possible to make progress by working together through social work and public policy advocacy, two experts on women’s issues told a group of Stoneleigh-Burnham School students Thursday morning.
“Don’t underestimate yourself,” said Dr. Sarah Perez McAdoo, co-founder and director of the Youth Empowerment Adolescent Health (YEAH!) Network. “On an individual level, doing what you do is significant. As you build yourself up, look at the institutions where you are and see where you can make change in your own immediate community.”
Through the Office of the Gov. Deval Patrick in Springfield, Stoneleigh-Burnham School brought two local experts on women’s issues to campus to discuss reproductive health and politics.
McAdoo visited an International Baccalaureate biology class, along with Sarah Carlan of Conway, a social worker and board member of Hadley-based MotherWoman, a nonprofit that provides support and advocacy for mothers and families.
The discussion offered students an opportunity to learn how the reproductive health they’ll learn in the classroom can translate into programs and policies that directly affect women and families.
According to Carlan, her organization challenges the unrealistic expectation to be the perfect mother that contributes to maternal stress, depression and an environment of judgment among women.
That ideal is partly a cause of maternal depression, she said.
The United States has among the highest rates of maternal depression in the world, according to MotherWoman. Up to 1 in 4 mothers suffers from postpartum depression.
The U.S. is also one of only four countries in the world without guaranteed paid maternity leave. Mothers are 44 percent less likely to be hired than equally qualified women without children. Women without children make 90 cents to a man’s dollar, mothers make 73 cents, and single mothers make 60 cents to a man’s dollar.
The isolation mothers face is also a huge factor as families become more dispersed, work longer hours and the communities that once supported mothers disappear, Carlan said.
The key to solving these issues, Carlan said, is community.
“Any time you gather groups of women in a safe place and they realize their struggles are universal, we get fired up,” Carlan said.
The work of McAdoo, on the other hand, is more geared toward teens and adolescents. But the work with young adults can have an impact on future job growth and a skilled work force that affects all of the community, she says.
By creating and implementing community based solutions, McAdoo works to eliminate disparities in adolescent sexual health so youth can reach their full potential in the modern economy.
As part of the YEAH! Network, McAdoo has advocated for the advancement of school policies in sex education and condom availability in Hampden County.
She is working on an initiative to reduce teen births by 10 percent in Springfield and Holyoke, and she launched a case management system for pregnant and parenting teens in Springfield.
Over the last eight years, the YEAH! Network has been able to drop the teen birth rate in Springfield to its lowest level on record.
The rate dropped by 14 percent in Springfield in two years. The average decline statewide was 18 percent. Holyoke, meanwhile, dropped by 32 percent in two years.
“How could we have had such a significant drop? It’s the people. It’s the people that make a difference,” McAdoo said.