This year GCAPP celebrates its 25
th
Anniversary of addressing the unique set of challenges adolescents face. Many of you know our journey. When Jane Fonda, our founder, established GCAPP 25 years ago, Georgia had the highest teen birth rate in the country. Today, the teen birth rate has dropped by 71 percent. There are many collective reasons, people, organizations, and strategies for this incredible milestone, and GCAPP is proud to be part of this significant progress. We are even more proud to be the sole organization in Georgia that has kept the issue on the front burner for a quarter of a century. This milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on accomplishments and envision a powerful future for young people. As president and CEO of GCAPP, and as a father, nothing is more motivating for me than looking to the future through the lens of today’s youth who need solutions now more than ever.
To address the myriad challenges facing today’s youth and increase our impact, GCAPP is in the midst of an expansion of services. We have gone through an in-depth process to learn more about the current landscape youth in Georgia face. We have developed a Formula for Change—a more comprehensive service delivery model, and we have developed strategies to collaborate with the youth advocacy ecosystem—schools and universities, corporations, community organizations, government agencies, the faith community, and many others—to be more effective, and to impact thousands of adolescents and young adults by the end of 2020.
A history of collaborative work has served us well in teen pregnancy prevention, comprehensive sex ed, parent engagement, youth empowerment, physical activity and nutrition. As we embark on a new decade and chart our next course, we see the work of GCAPP—and the work of our partners—as absolutely essential to creating a healthier generation in Georgia.
