1998 Annual Report
-- Published March 1999
PSI Evaluation: Numbers Grow; Ratings Rise and Births Drop
In the 1997-98 school year, Postponing Sexual Involvement (PSI) Teen Leaders taught 855 sessions in 225 classes; 4,791 students participated in PSI classes at 46.
Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS); 104 CPS classroom health educators hosted PSI; 67 percent of CPS building principals with grades 5, 6, 7 or 8 hosted PSI; 90 percent of CPS building principals with grades 7 or 8 hosted PSI for Young Teens; 51 percent of CPS building principals with grades five or six hosted PSI for Pre-Teens.
Only 0.6 percent of the participants' guardians opted their child out of PSI (28 out of 4,819).
Eighty-four percent of parents/guardians of seventh graders taking PSI expressed support for PSI; 14 percent were neutral. (Sixty percent of a random sample responded.)
All of the educators hosting PSI expressed support; 59 percent responded.
The number of births to young teen girls in Cincinnati dropped by 27 percent between 1993 and 1997. During 1993, there were 391 births to girls ages 16 and under in the city. During 1997, there were 284 births -- the lowest annual total in nine years.
The rate of births to young teens in CPS zip codes dropped from 12.47 per 1,000 Cincinnati females, ages 10-17, in 1993, to 8.92 per 1,000 in 1997.
Halfway through the 1998-99 school year, 59 PSI Teen Leaders taught 335 sessions in 73 classes.
A total of 1,696 students participated in PSI classes at 22 CPS buildings; seventh grade classes had an average of 5.4 PSI sessions.
Only 0.6 percent opted out of seventh grade PSI (seven of 1,132); 90 percent of parents/guardians expressed support for PSI (41 percent of random sample responded); all of the educators hosting PSI expressed support (55 percent responded).
These first semester numbers, combined with scheduled second semester PSI classes are projected to match the number of CPS students, schools and teachers from last year.
Bronston Brings Fifth/Sixth Grade PSI to New Heights
Last school year, 1997-98, 30 schools and 50 classroom educators hosted 210 PSI lessons for 1,537 students in 5th or 6th grade. This represents two to three times more PSI students, sessions and classes than in 1996-97, and 51 percent of elementary schools in Cincinnati Public Schools.
Halfway through the 1998-99 school year, fifteen Cincinnati public elementary schools have hosted PSI: Urton, Cheviot, College Hill Fundamental Academy, Crest Hills Year-Round, Fairview, Hoffman, Linwood Academy, McKinley, Midway, North Fairmount, Parham, Pleasant Ridge, Taft Elementary, Washington Park, and Winton Place.
Each school received two or three sessions, one of which was taught by Teen Leaders. Twenty-five teachers have hosted PSI for Pre-Teens in the schools. Nineteen more schools have requested elementary PSI in the second half of the 1998-99 school year.
Valda Bronston, PSI Pre-Teen Coordinator, has been working full-time since January 1998 to realize this programmatic growth. PSI needs commitments from six more Cincinnati public elementary school educators to achieve its goal of 40 schools with PSI in 1998-99.
Bronston also coordinates PSI teacher in-services at the Mayerson Academy. Attendees receive an $80 stipend to purchase up-to-date interactive health education materials of their choice. PSI covers substitute teacher costs. Over 95 percent of the 22 participants to date have rated the seminar with high marks. Bronston has a background in communications, which serves her well when she persuades educators to host PSI.
In her fourth year with PSI, Bronston teaches educators how to bring out the best in themselves and their students while teaching a delicate, emotionally charged topic.
Health Foundation Invests $100K in PSI PAYOFFS
Hermanns Handles New Young Teen Leader Program
Under the coordination of five-year PSI Adult Leader Amy Hermanns, M.Ed., PSI has begun an eighth grade Young Teen Leader Program. The local chapter of March of Dimes supports this initiative through a 1999 grant.
How does the eighth grade Young Teen Leader Program enhance PSI? It provides leadership opportunities for eighth grade students to be role models in their schools.
It provides opportunities for fifth and sixth graders to learn PSI Assertiveness Techniques from respected older peers.
It relieves high school Teen Leaders from additional teaching duties in the elementary schools; thus they miss less class time in high school.
It provides collaborative opportunities between middle level and intermediate teachers in K-8 CPS buildings.
It identifies and trains potential high school teens at the eighth level.
It exposes more elementary teachers to PSI. As a result, the PSI message is generated through more schools.
As of the end of February 1999, 16 eighth graders have been identified and parental permission granted; seven schools are participants; seven students are trained and ready to teach, representing four K-8 schools: Pleasant Hill, Kirby Road, SCPA and Pleasant Ridge. Elementary school teachers at Heinold, led by Yulanda White, middle school educator, piloted this program in Spring 1998.
"Since what we choose is who we are, and what we love we yet shall be, the goal may ever shine afar -- the will to reach it makes us free." -- William DeWitt Hyde
Reorganized, renamed, and re-endowed, the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati (formerly ChoiceCare Foundation) awarded $100,000 over a two-year period to PSI for marketing PSI training and consultation services to school districts outside Cincinnati Public Schools in a 20-county, tri-state region.
Under the direction of eight-year PSI Adult Leader Anthony (Tony) Davis, ME.d., MCP, PSI PAYOFFSM was formed to teach other school districts how to establish their own PSI teen leadership program.
The service includes training teens and adults on how to effectively implement PSI sessions; planning with district administrators how to develop community support, secure long-term local funding, evaluate impact, and recruit qualified teen leaders and coordinators; and developing active partnerships between district PSI programs and local hospital resources.
Davis has worked with Nancy Strassel and the Greater Cincinnati Health Council to prepare nine hospital response teams which are ready to make a variety of long-term commitments to a school district's PSI teen leadership program.
Participating hospitals are Franciscan Hospital, Margaret Mary Community Hospital, Mercy Hospital Fairfield, Tri-Health/Good Samaritan, Tri-Health/Bethesda, Fort Hamilton Hughes Memorial Hospital, Clermont Mercy Hospital, Adams County Hospital, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
In the past year, PSI PAYOFFSM has trained teen leaders in Adams County (Ohio), Milford (Ohio), Vanlue (Ohio), Ohio Teen Institute, and Williston, North Dakota.
In addition, PSI PAYOFFSM is producing a promotional video with Paradigm Communication Group in the spring of 1999.
Contact Davis to get PSI PAYOFFSM for your school district. PAYOFF stands for Positive Alternatives for Youth, Opportunities For the Future.
Two Halves Make the PSI "A-Team" Whole
Two half-time staff members from Children's Hospital Medical Center of Cincinnati have joined PSI in response to recent program growth. They have broadened the quality of PSI service.
Mary Angela Allendorf transferred from another division of Children's Hospital in June 1998 to become the part-time PSI Office Manager and secretary. Allendorf is a graduate of Berea College.
In six months, Allendorf has prepared three grant applications, converted the PSI Master Schedule into new computer software, reorganized a five-room office suite and nine-year old filing system, created color graphics for PSI educational materials, processed daily financial transactions and correspondence, answered the phones, and managed the clerical work for five PSI programs in a 20-hour work week.
Allison White recently joined PSI as a part-time Adult Leader in January 1999. After working 12 years at the hospital drawing blood from children, White now splits her time with Phlebotomy to work 20 hours a week drawing ideas about postponing sex from adolescents.
White is a graduate of University of Cincinnati, where she majored in Communications. She is also a Walnut Hills High School alumna who has that rare opportunity of returning as a health educator to The Old Colonies at Walnut where she (and the PSI Coordinator) were once students.
Angie and Allison make five out of seven PSI staff names begin with "A". This reflects the "A+" educational service PSI offers (Angie, Allison, Amber, Amy, Anthony).
Contact Information
For more information, please contact the PSI staff:
Postponing Sexual Involvement
PSI, c/o Hughes Center, Suite 334
2515 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
psichmc@fuse.net
