Power to Decide Kicks Off May With #TalkingIsPower Campaign
(Washington, D.C.)— Power to Decide, the campaign to prevent unplanned pregnancy, today kicks off #TalkingIsPower, a national effort to spark meaningful conversations between young people and the parents and champions in their lives who care about them.
Specifically, the #TalkingIsPower campaign will provide resources that champions such as parents, guardians, teachers, mentors and other family members can use to spark conversations with young people in their lives about sex, love and relationships. The national Start early, Talk often, #TalkingIsPower campaign takes place in May—Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. The goal of the campaign is to remind champions how powerful they are in a young person’s life and what an important role they have in providing accurate information on sex, love, relationships and contraception.
Men and women report learning about sex as young people from a variety of sources, such as school, family and friends, health care providers, religious and community leaders, and mass and social media, according to a new survey conducted for Power to Decide and #TalkingIsPower month. Fully 65 percent remember learning about sex, love and relationships at school; 58 percent from friends and peers; and equal percentages (36 percent) say they first remember learning about sex from mass media or parents and other family members. The online survey reflects responses from 1,000 men and women between the ages of 18-34.
“Champions hold the unique ability to instill in young people the belief that they have the power to decide if, when and under what circumstances to become pregnant,” said Ginny Ehrlich, CEO, Power to Decide. “Our recent survey clearly indicates that young people are going to a variety of trusted champions for information about sex, love and relationships. The #TalkingIsPower campaign supports champions in using their influence to help young people think through what they want for their futures and the pathway for getting there.”
In order to help facilitate these conversations, #TalkingIsPower is providing a variety of supporting materials including speaking prompts and videos made by young people about why talking is important and what they wish they heard from their champions. Additional efforts to help facilitate these sensitive conversations include blog posts on how to talk to the young people in your lives, and why these conversations are important and must happen continuously throughout their life.
To learn more, and to participate in the #TalkingIsPower campaign, please visit www.powertodecide.org/talkingispower
