Plain Talk

Plain Talk is a national program with a community based initiative aimed at helping parents, adults and community leaders develop the skills and tools they need to communicate effectively with young people about reducing adolescent sexual risk-taking and reproductive health including prevention of teen pregnancy and reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections.

With great concern for Americaâ??s at-risk, sexually active youth, the Annie E. Casey Foundation was prompted to develop Plain Talk. Hablando Claro is the program name used in the Spanish-speaking sites. The Plain Talk/Hablando Claro strategy is quite simple: if we increase adult/teen communication about sex, and increase sexually active teensâ?? access to contraceptives, we will decrease the number of unwanted pregnancies, STDs and HIV/AIDS. With this strategy, the Annie E. Casey Foundation is now in collaboration with Public/Private Ventures, coordinator of Plain Talk program replication and expansion across the country.

The Minneapolis Plain Talk site is 1 of 21 sites in the United States. We are 1 of 4 Bi-cultural sites with a specific focus on the African American and Latino populations in the Bryant and Central neighborhoods of South Minneapolis, MN. With the recent national study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stating that 1 in 4 teenage girls have a sexually transmitted infection (STI) and that STI rates are highest in African American and Latina girls, the Plain Talk team in South Minneapolis is working hard to motivate and educate the community.

During the summer of 2006, the Plain Talk Minneapolis team surveyed over 800 residents in the Bryant and Central neighborhoods around the matters of sex and reproductive health. The result of the analyzed data was shocking. Results showed that of the adolescents surveyed, 45% said they had engaged in sexual activity. When asked at what age they began engaging in sexual activity, the youngest response was age 13. Of the adolescents we surveyed, 64% felt comfortable talking with their parents about sexual matters. However we know that feeling comfortable talking with their parents about these issues does not mean that they have communicated about these issues. Read more...