Teen Pregnancy Press Release
March 24, 2004

The broadcast of a special program focusing on the problem of teenage pregnancy in northeast Ohio will premiere Thursday, April 8 at 8 p.m. on WVIZ/PBS.

WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream and The Plain Dealer in cooperation with the Federation for Community Planning, have partnered to create the program Tomorrow’s Promise – Helping Children Left Behind. Through newspaper articles, television and radio programming and a series of town hall meetings, ideastream, The Plain Dealer and the Federation for Community Planning have taken a proactive approach to increase awareness and evoke conversation on a series of challenges facing young people in northeast Ohio.

In this second installment of Tomorrow’s Promise, panelists assembled in the WVIZ/PBS studio will explore innovative local solutions to the many issues surrounding teen pregnancy. They will revisit the public forum activity, including spirited discussions between health workers and community advocates that took place throughout Northeast Ohio during March 2004.

Three town hall meetings were conducted across northeast Ohio – at Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland, Jefferson Community Recreation Center in Ashtabula County and Lorain County Community College in Elyria. Excerpts from these town hall meetings in which attendees engaged in discussions about problems and solutions will be used to guide the studio-based panel discussion. Among specific issues addressed, panelists will discuss key factors contributing to teen pregnancy, the important role of parents and adults in the life of teens, the various viewpoints of prevention, and innovative, local solutions.

Evolving from the July 2003 The Plain Dealer series of articles called “Children Left Behind,” the Tomorrow’s Promise collaboration was formed to address the important issues that affect children living in northeast Ohio. The Plain Dealer analysis found these problems are not confined to the Cleveland city limits, as children in many greater-Cleveland suburbs are not doing as well as those in similar communities around the state or in other parts of the country. The initial broadcast in the series, which premiered in November 2003, focused on the high school graduation rates in northeast Ohio.

In addition to the April 8 panel discussion broadcast, Tomorrow’s Promise programming scheduled for WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN ideastream also includes:

• Radio news coverage of the meetings and events
• Special news stories exploring the issues addressed in the series, complementing the fuller-format programming on radio and television. Issues and solutions identified during community forums will be addressed.
• A special one-hour live radio call-in program about the issues surrounding teen pregnancy on 90.3 at 9, scheduled for Tuesday, April 13.

Renita Jablonski, producer/reporter for 90.3 WCPN and WVIZ/PBS ideastream, will host the program. Joe Frolik, associate editor at The Plain Dealer will moderate the panel discussion. The Plain Dealer will publish special articles and transcripts of the studio panel discussion in the Forum Section of the Sunday, April 4th edition.