• one-on-one/ Mentoring • group Activities & Recreation • Hablando Claro/ plain talk

Hablando Claro/Plain Talk

Chatham County Together! is the local organization responsible for implementing the Hablando Claro/Plain Talk initiative in Siler City. CCT! is working in partnership with the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina, Annie E. Casey, and Public Private Ventures. The project is funded by the NC Department of Health and Human Services. Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives and Public Private Ventures provides training, technical assistance, and evaluation.

The Hablando Claro project in Siler City is a neighborhood-based initiative that helps adults, parents and community leaders develop the skills and tools they need to communicate effectively with young people about personal responsibility and decision making. The goal of this project is to increase communication between adults and adolescents and to reduce teen pregnancy for Hispanic youth.

Currently adults and adolescents in Siler City are being surveyed through community mapping about their attitudes, knowledge and beliefs about teen sexuality and behaviors.

Staff involved with this project include Maria Soto, Hablando Claro Coordinator and Kim Caraganis, Director of CCT!

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a national foundation whose mission is to foster public policies, human service reforms and community supports that meet the needs of vulnerable children and families, helped develop and launch Plain Talk/Hablando Claro in 1993. Based on its documented success, this project has been replicated in multiple communities across 8 states.

Public Private Ventures(P/PV) of Philadelphia has helped to carry out the successful replication of Plain Talk/Hablando Claro in several sites.

Maria Soto, Hablando Claro Coordinator for Chatham Couty Together! has won the 2007 June Stallings Award from the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina. This award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated long-term, creative efforts on behalf of adolescent pregnancy prevention in North Carolina.

To learn more about the history of Plain Talk/ Hablando Claro and how it's being implemented in other places, visit these websites:
• Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Plain Talk