BrdsNBz Research Published In Journal of Sex Education

Kennon Jackson, BrdsNBz National Text Line Director, and graduate student, Jessica Willoughby, have published a co-authored paper about BrdsNBz North Carolina in the Journal of Sex Education.

The article “Can you get pregnant when u r in the pool?’: young people’s information seeking from a sexual health text line” is available in the online version of the journal.

Pregnant and Parenting Teen Conference, Indianapolis

The Young Families of Indiana Network sponsored a state-wide conference in June 2012: The 2012 Pregnant and Parenting Teen Conference – Stepping Stones to the Future, Promising a World of Possibilities.

BrdsNBz National Text Line Director, Kennon Jackson, spoke on “What Are They Really Asking: Adolescents’ Questions About Pregnancy”.

The Future Promises Program of Marion County includes a teen father’s program, a formal partnership with Indianapolis Healthy Start, and a regional/state resource for teen parents, their parents, and professionals. To reflect their expanded mission, they changed their name in 2012 and are now known as the Young Families of Indiana Network (YFIN). The Future Promises Program is one program within YFIN. The name change reflects their intent to be a service leader for this special population. Organizationally YFIN will remain a division of the External Affairs Department of Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.

Sharing BrdsNBz Success at 2012 SexTech Conference, April 1-4

The 2012 Sex::Tech Conference is enjoying it’s fourth year and we’ve been chosen to speak on a panel including not only APPCNC but also Deb Levin, SexTech founder, and Jonathan Holly from Educational Messaging Services.

OneSeventeen’s public-private partnership with the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) will share the success as the first text messaging service for sexual health education.  Kennon Jackson, Jr. (APPCNC) and Jessica Fitts Willoughby will discuss “Adolescents’ Questions about Pregnancy Posed to an Interactive Text Message Service.”

Just in case you’re in SF and attending SexTech, be sure to stop by and hear Kennon and Jessica.  Here’s a brief abstract of their panel discussion:

Want to know what questions adolescents really have about what leads to pregnancy? We examined the questions asked of a sexual health text messaging service promoted to North Carolina teens ages 14 to 19. BrdsNBz North Carolina allows adolescents to text a question to the service and receive a personalized response within 24 hours from trained health educators. Adolescents had a number of questions about pregnancy, mainly what situations can lead to pregnancy (60%). They wanted to know whether anal sex and oral sex could lead to pregnancy, if having sex when a girl is on her period could lead to pregnancy, and if having sex underwater could lead to pregnancy. Adolescents also often wanted to know how to detect and prevent pregnancy. Knowing what questions adolescents have may help health educators address them before they come up. Come find out what teens really want to know about pregnancy.

City of Austin Launches New Programs for Parents and Teens

The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign (APPCNC) in Durham, NC has coordinated with officials in Austin, Texas the launch of the nation’s first personalized text-and-answer services specifically for parents and teens. A product of its public-private partnership, BrdsNBz National is APPCNC’s successful expansion of its North Carolina service over the past three years.  This initiative is in conjunction with Houston-based OneSeventeen Media, the Austin City Health Department and the Austin Healthy Adolescent Initiative (AHA).

APPCNC caught the attention of public health officials nationwide with the launch of their BrdsNBz Text Message Warm Line in February 2009. The BrdsNBz service supplements the work of parents, educators, and medical professionals by providing North Carolina youth a medically accurate, personalized answer to teens’ sexual health and relationship questions.

AHA is an interagency collaborative that will ensure the overall health and well-being of all adolescents, 10-18 years of age, in Austin/Travis County and their adult caregivers to prepare them with a strong foundation for adult life. The Initiative uses a comprehensive evidence-based approach to increase healthy behaviors and decision-making among Texas adolescents by promoting the development of confidence, competence, connectedness, character, and contribution.

Is Your Company An UpStart?

Think Progress.org
By Stephen Lacey on Jun 3, 2011

UpStart [uhp-stahrt] n. 1. A company or organization with innovative approaches to energy use, carbon pollution, resource consumption, and/or social equity, 2. A company or organization overcoming market barriers to build the new clean energy economy.

While playing an important role, governments and non-profits cannot build a “clean economy” on their own; rather, the private sector must lead the way. And thanks to a growing number of forward-thinking companies, the clean economy is already in the works. In this series, Lisbeth Kaufman of the Center for American Progress highlights “UpStarts” – companies that are shaking up the market, breaking down barriers and helping change the economy.

B Lab is creating a new type of company, the B Corporation, which modifies governance so that managers respond to long-term interests of investors, stakeholders, and the environment, rather than just focusing on short-term profits.

In a Harvard Business School case study on B Lab, co-founder Coen Gilbert explained B Lab’s goals and approach to overcoming market barriers for social entrepreneurs:

“There are tons of individual companies that have managed to effectively balance social and business impact. Still, we need to institutionalize the values, standards, and accountability that allow companies to do that. We need systems in place. We need to change the rules of the game instead of continuing to clean up the mess.

We want to look at the root causes. The root causes are not evil people, but rather poor system design. Right now the system is designed to maximize short-term stock value; it does that well, but at the cost of everything else.”

The question is: How do we have a system that facilitates long term value for the good of society?

The Problem: Undefined status and standards for for-profit social entrepreneurs

Over the past decade the social entrepreneurship sector has grown to include an estimated 40 million people employed worldwide, all working to address the most pressing environmental, economic and social challenges of the day. Despite the rising numbers of social entrepreneurs, for-profit businesses in the sector face a number of daunting challenges.

These barriers include:

Legal Status: Current corporate law makes it difficult for companies to prioritize social and environmental impact, requiring companies to maximize shareholder financial return above all else. Until the advent of B-Corporations, there was no legal status for companies that seek to produce social and environmental benefits in addition to profits.

Standards and Transparency: Most corporations have a stated corporate social responsibility (CSR) mission, but without economy-wide standards it’s hard for consumers to tell which companies have real impactful social policies and which simply have impactful marketing campaigns.

Incentives: While the government grants non-profit organizations tax exempt status and allows non-profits to accept tax-deductable contributions, there are no such incentives for for-profit socially beneficial organizations.

The Solution: The B Corporation

Legal Status: B Lab is changing the rules of the game by changing the very structure and legal status of the corporation. Officers and directors of B Corporations have legal permission and protection to consider the interest of all stakeholders, in corporate decision-making: employees, consumers, the community, the environment, not just shareholders. The B Corporation is essentially a new corporate form, a for-profit hybrid of the standard corporation and the socially oriented non-profit. Four states have passed B Corp laws, while six more states consider B Corp legislation.

Standards and Transparency: B Lab has designed a B Impact Rating System (BIRS) to measure a company’s social and environmental performance, setting economy wide standards that apply for all sectors and business sizes. To qualify as B Corporation, a company must complete the B Impact Assessment and receive a composite score of at least 80 out of 200 points. BIRS is updated every 2 years to remain relevant and accurate, and version 3.0 is now up for review. The rating system uses a cold hard numerical score to cut through “green washing” and CSR marketing.

Incentives: B Lab is actively building incentives to encourage businesses to join the B Corporation community, and to reward the organizations that are already making positive impact. With a network of more than 60 service partners, B Corps get discounts on various business services amounting to more than $750,000 in savings, including Salesforce.com, NetSuite software, Inspire Commerce credit card processing, along with increased advertising and marketing benefits. Likewise, the B Corp community includes a growing network of more than 25 investors interested in supporting B Corps. To ensure the best and the brightest work for B Corporations, the Yale School of Management forgives student loans for graduates who work at a B Corporation within ten years of graduation.

So far there are 419 B Corporations of various sizes across 54 industries, with a total of $1.94 billion in revenues. The community includes large well known brands like Method, 7th Generation, and Good Capital as well as numerous smaller startups.

The conventional corporation has little incentive to address the most pressing issues the world faces. B Lab, a prime example of an UpStart, serves as a cutting-edge way to allow entrepreneurs to solve important climate, energy, and social problems — while making a profit.

Thanks to Mark Fischer, CEO, Inspire Commerce and InspirePay, for originally posting this article.

OneSeventeen Media is Texas’ first certified B Corporation.

iPhone Mom Reviews PlumbBrain Guardian

Heather Leister, better known as the iPhone Mom, reviews iPhone apps for other moms.  She is also an expert contributor on Momtastic.com, a site that provides answers, support, ideas and inspiration for moms. Her 2010 Top 50 iPhone Apps for Mom’s was a hit on Babble.com, a website for the new generation parent.

Needless to say, we were ecstatic when the iPhone Mom chose to review PlumbBrain Guardian last week.

In her review, she stated that she was impressed with PlumbBrain Guardian’s key features of storing information about your child in their profile and simplifying the process of alerting emergency personnel should your child go missing.

But, she went on to say…..”This is all extremely helpful and important but the next feature is what made me think PlumbBrain Guardian is really onto something. If you’re like me you would install this app on your phone, add the photographs and then forget about it. Hoping I’d never need to use it and so never going back to update the information. Should something happen years later the only picture I would have of my fifteen year old daughter would be a photo from when she was eleven.”

“PlumbBrain has thought about people like me and they have built alerts into their app. When you setup your account you may schedule alerts that will remind you to update your children’s photos. Reminders can be set as frequently as weekdays, weekly, monthly or annually. This is a fantastic feature!”

How could we have asked for more than to be in the IPhone Mom’s “Hope I Never Have To Use Them” category??!! “I have several apps on my iPhone that fall into the category of “Hope I NEVER have to use them but I’m VERY glad I have them” and PlumbBrain Guardian is solidly in that category. This is a free and useful app you should definitely get your hands on.”

Learn more about the PlumbBrain Guardian and download a free copy in the iTunes Store.

PlumbBrain Guardian: First iOS Mobile Application Launched

Ok, I know I’m a little late sharing my excitement but I just had to share anyway how much fun it is to continue to learn new things and explore new frontiers.

On April 29, 2011, we launched a new child safety mobile application for the iPod, iPad and iPhone!  PlumbBrain Guardian was created by parents for parents. The app helps you keep a current photo of your child or grandchild (or a child in your care) in case they wander off unexpectedly.

One of our advisors with AMBER Alert™ says one of the key features of the PlumbBrain Guardian app is it’s reminder feature telling you to update your child’s photo. A current photo is critical to finding a lost child quickly.  The AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.

Please check it out for yourself.  Maybe you don’t have children in the 2-13 age range but I bet you know someone who does (OK, we’re assuming once our children reach 13 they won’t wander off!).  Click here to download the app from the App Store in iTunes to your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad – it’s free!

Please leave us your feedback in the comments section or contact us at mobile [at] oneseventeenmedia.com or twitter @bcarls.

The Technology Generation: How Times Have Changed

Adults today can remember their first computers with  less storage space than today’s flash drives, and (gasp) a floppy disk drive. It was a time when consumers had to adapt to evolutions in technology, and brands had to find ways to use technology to reach consumers.

In 2010, the sides of the scale have shifted. Technology is abundant, the Internet is cluttered, marketing is everywhere and consumers have more options than they’ll ever need. The audiences that technology grew up with (Gen X, Boomers) are all but captive to brands. The audience that grew up with technology (teens, Millennials) are not wooed by glitz and glamour. They’re used to technology, because it’s always been there. How times have changed!

Devices Have Always Been Portable

Teens have grown up in the portable era. Their first computers were laptops. Their first music players were iPods. Their first gaming systems were handheld. Because teens are so adept at using portable devices, they expect experiences to transition across them.

Mobile Phones Have Always Existed

Because teens are a texting generation, many of them prefer BlackBerrys and other phones that provide a different experience than touch-screen phones. Teens grew up with lots of options for mobile phones, so they’re not as quick to buy or try the next hot new thing — especially if it’s not connected with what they’re already using.

Technology Is Always Evolving

To teens, there are always new mobile platforms and devices being created. They’re open to new technology more than any other generation and are savvier with new devices, but they don’t just buy it ’cause it’s new. Teens want their technology to work better than what they have and doesn’t just look better than what they have.

Brands Have Always Been Online

Brands have been online as long as teens have. There’s nothing new about it, and that makes them harder to engage. Teens don’t want to engage with brands in social media just because it’s cool that the brand is in social media. They want to engage with brands if they’re getting something in return.

So though times have changed, I think it is safe to say that today’s technology driven teens are not overwhelmed by their choices, but looking for technology that works for them!

Teens and Technology Predict a Better Future by 2015

It is no doubt that teens gravitate to technology, and as far as young Americans are concerned, a greener future is coming soon.

Powered by technology and fueled by creativity, fundamental change is about to emerge in the electronically connected world they inhabit. Gasoline-powered automobiles, compact discs, and desktop computers are headed toward the technology scrap heap according to a recent survey of American high school students. Their laptops, cell phones and I-pods are entry level tools that, combined with education and creativity, will lead to changes that improve the world.

Teens predict technology will create change by 2015, and these familiar objects will be replaced with newer, better, energy efficient cars and communications equipment. According to teens, developers of hydrogen and electric cars better get busy. The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index, which gauges Americans’ attitudes toward invention and innovation, found that a third (33 percent) of today’s technology educated young adults predict that gasoline-powered cars will be obsolete by the year 2015.

The tech savvy teens are used to toting phones that let them access the Web, text and download tunes. Laptops and a flash drive are their heavy duty home to dorm or classroom computing equipment. And it’s no surprise that more than one in four teens (26 percent) expect compact discs to be obsolete within the next decade. Another one in five (22 percent) of the teens predict desktop computers will be a thing of the past within the next ten years.

Teens Believe Global Issues Have Solutions

Using cell phones to download music, facebook to keep in touch and blogs to communicate ideas is fun, but these American teens are optimistic that the creativity unleashed by computers and other modern technology can help solve important global issues. Students need to learn to use techology in engaging ways to develop higher level thinking skills.

Accessing international communities via the Internet is second nature to these digital learners. The young adults who took the survey are confident that just about any crisis facing the world can be solved by working together to apply new technologies and innovative thinking to global concerns.

Their faith in innovation and invention is a hopeful sign. On clean water, 91 percent expect technology to step in and create a solution. A whopping 89 percent of the teens think that world hunger will end by 2015. Disease eradication (88 percent), pollution reduction (84 percent) and energy conservation (82 percent) are all within the realm of being history with the application of creative new applications that these electronically connected teens will help develop.

Technology and Change Is Their Comfort Zone

“Perhaps more than any preceding generation, today’s young people are completely comfortable with rapid technological change,” Lemelson-MIT Program Director Merton Flemings said.

“Teens’ belief that science and technology may hold the answers to our biggest societal challenges is encouraging,” Flemings added. Technology coupled with teen creativity creates a winning team. Who would have predicted that cell phones, I-pods and laptop computers would have such far reaching effects?

Will Education Be Able To Keep The Pace?

The Lemelson-MIT Invention Index found that these teens believe they have developed some of the critical skills that will be needed to address these issues. More than three out of four teens (77 percent) believe they have learned problem-solving skills well while in school.

They also feel prepared to work in teams (72 percent), think creatively (71 percent) and lead others (61 percent). However, they fall short when it comes to budgeting money. Only 32 percent of teens said they feel they learned that skill well while in school.

With teens like these working on solving the world’s environmental and conservation issues, you begin to believe that the 2015 predictions really have a chance to become reality.

College Application Time – ‘Tis the Season

This year Stanford admitted only 7.2 percent of applicants and Harvard accepted only 6.9 percent of them. The process seems daunting. At Harvard, before kids even get to the essay questions, they need to circle whether their career, academic, and athletic plans are “very likely to change” or “absolutely certain.” Then they’ve got the 250-words-or-more Common Application essay. (One suggested topic: “Discuss some issue of personal, local, national, or international concern and its importance to you.” Yikes.) And many schools add on “optional” essays.

Writing a college application essay can be pretty stressful, and it should be time-consuming. After all, you don’t want to give the admissions counselors at your dream school a bad impression based on a poorly written essay that you threw together the night before the due date. Proper planning is essential because you will need to give yourself plenty of time for adjustments, rewrites, and proofreading.

It’s no secret that your high school grades and standardized test scores will play a large role in admissions decisions, but colleges also like to get an idea of what their applicants are really like as a person. Essays are a good way for admissions committees to gain some insight about your interests and values. Essays also provide an easy way for the schools to see a first-hand example of your writing skills.

Here’s a guide to some ways you can use to help you through this rite of passage:

Be Yourself. “Applications are best if they reflect the way the student is,” says Light. “It’s very tempting to sit down and try to figure out what admissions officers — we as a species — want to see, and there are perils in that.” Why? “We have pretty good radar to detect the overly varnished,” says Keith Light, who has worked in admissions at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, and now at Brown. “It’s not that we’re cynical and looking for cheating or too much input. [But] it’s not very hard for us to spot when a parent or someone else [like a teacher] has had too much of a heavy hand in the writing.” It makes admissions officers wonder, “Are we really getting to really know the student, or what others thinks the student is?” he says. It’s best when students pen their own essays, which sound as though they’re written by the person their teachers are describing in their recommendation letters.

College admissions counselors know the typical writing skill level of high school students, so they will most likely be able to see through an essay not written by the student. Some students submit essays that they had a friend or relative write for them, or even one that they purchased online—these are all bad plans. You could wind up costing yourself admission into the school and get yourself into big trouble. Just be yourself!

Getting Started. Some students make the mistake of waiting until they have access to the actual application essay topics before they start thinking about their college admissions essays. It’s actually a good idea to begin keeping a notebook or list of potential ideas during your junior year of high school. Write yourself notes every once in awhile to keep track of things you’ve done. Your list can include things such as group projects you worked on, school activities that you participated in, church functions, part-time jobs that you’ve had, and even family things that you’ve dealt with, such as divorce. Nearly anything can wind up becoming your essay topic.

Once it’s time to begin writing your essay for real, you’ll have a notebook full of ideas from which to choose. Go through your notes and see if anything seems worthy of using; you can even choose two or three topics as “maybes” and narrow things down as you go.

Decide which essay topic you are going to use, and begin by writing an outline. Even though you may have been told otherwise, your admissions essay doesn’t have to be about something that no one else has ever done. While it’s important that your essay is unique and talks about you, most high school students go through similar experiences … and you don’t want to create an essay full of lies, remember?

Once you begin writing, you’ll probably realize that the experience isn’t as bad as you’d imagined it would be. Just remember that the purpose of writing this essay is to present a personal view of you to the college admissions staff. If the school does not require in-person interviews, your essay may be all they have to go on. Take your time and allow others to read your essay and provide constructive criticism before you turn it in.

Don’t underestimate yourself. Keep your attitude positive. Most kids don’t go to Harvard — but still get into a college and love it. This fall about 7.5 million students are expected to attend public four-year institutions and 4.6

million to attend private four-year institutions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. (There are more than 420 public colleges and universities alone, according to the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.)

Don’t feel compelled to add extras, such as resumes. “We neither ask for or expect them, but they pop up,” says Light. (Some even include “mission statements.”) Light once received a 12-page one. The parent told him, “The son of my friend down the street just got admitted to Harvard last year, and his resume was 14 pages.” Light’s take on it: “He was admitted in spite of the essay.” (Resumes aren’t the only add-ons: Once Light received multiple copies of a color-coded family tree, dating back to the 1800s, which showed close relatives’ connections to a university.)

Follow the essay guidelines that were specified on your application. You don’t want it to be too short or too long. Most schools allow typed essays, so they will probably have specifications for font size and spacing; others will request hand-written essays, so be sure to submit your essay in the format that is required. Read your directions carefully.

Remember to proofread your essay. Check your work carefully for grammar, spelling, and structure. Ask others to proofread it, too – your English teacher is a great choice for this job, if they’re willing to help you out, as well as your friends and family. An essay that is full of typos and grammatical errors will look sloppy and rushed and will reflect poorly on you.

Save your essay. It’s fine to use the same essay with minor revisions for more than one college application, so be sure to save your essay. Keep it on the hard drive of your computer, but burn it to CD or place it on an external hard as well. You never know when your computer may crash and cause you to lose everything. You can even email it to yourself as an attachment.

Good luck!