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Plain Talk is a neighborhood-based initiative aimed at helping adults, parents, and community leaders develop the skills they need to communicate effectively with young people about reducing adolescent sexual risk-taking. Plain Talk was developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and launched in five urban communities in 1993. Today Plain Talk has been replicated in multiple communities across 10 states.

Plain Talk Goals

Plain Talk’s goals are ambitious:

• To create consensus among parents and adults about the need to protect sexually active youth by encouraging early and consistent use of contraceptives
• To give parents and other community adults the information and skills they need to communicate more effectively with teens about responsible sexual behavior
• To improve adolescent access to high-quality, age-appropriate and readily available reproductive health care, including contraception.[1]

Core Program Components

Research demonstrates that three core activities were responsible for achieving these goals:

• Community Mapping determines the community’s attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs regarding adolescent sexual behavior. This activity is also used to recruit and involve community residents in developing solutions to teen sexual risk-taking.
• Walkers and Talkers are resident volunteers who speak to other residents in their communities about the importance of adults talking with teens about sexuality and of sharing accurate information with teens.
• Home Health Parties create a regular opportunity to educate adults about correct health information and about effective communications between adults and teens regarding teen pregnancy prevention.

Evaluation Results

Plain Talk pilot projects were launched in the early 1990’s by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in five urban areas around the country. An independent evaluation of Plain Talk in 1998 found the program effective in changing the way adults communicate with teens about sexuality. In particular, the evaluation found:

• Increased levels of communication between adults and sexually active youth.
• Increased levels of youth awareness about where to get contraception.

The youth who talked with adults, in comparison to those who did not:

• Knew more about and were more comfortable with contraceptives.
• Used birth control more consistently.
• Used reproductive health services more often.
• Were less likely to have a sexually transmitted disease or a pregnancy.

Applying for Replication

In 2000, The Annie E. Casey Foundation contracted with Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), an action-based research, public policy and program development organization, to assist communities in replicating the Plain Talk model. P/PV focuses its efforts in communities with high rates of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease, which often accompany high rates of poverty.

There are now established Plain Talk programs in eleven communities across the country, and P/PV is still expanding its work, helping community-based organizations, health departments, housing projects, churches and other agencies in 17 states to replicate the program. Plain Talk has been shown to be effective in Latino/Hispanic and African American communities, and all training materials are available in English and Spanish.

Interested organizations can apply to P/PV to replicate Plain Talk. Once an application has been reviewed, a representative from P/PV conducts a presentation in the community for all interested parties (such as health department officials, neighborhood residents, a nonprofit agency, and others). The Annie E. Casey Foundation covers the preliminary cost of training, technical assistance, and data collection (about $40,000); sites wishing to replicate Plain Talk must themselves secure the funding needed to implement the program (about $80,000). Advocates for Youth and P/PV can assist in securing funding. Once funding is secured, P/PV provides training and technical assistance for the site. There is a one-day training course on how to recruit and involve community residents in the Plain Talk process, and about four weeks later, a two-day training course on the community mapping component of the program.

Once the community mapping is completed, P/PV analyzes the data and returns it to the implementing agency to share with the community. Community residents are then hired to be Walkers and Talkers and given a five-day Walkers and Talkers training course. Fueled with the results from the community mapping process, the Walkers and Talkers then begin to conduct Home Health Parties and educate other community members about issues of teen sexuality and how adults can better communicate with adolescents.[2]

For More Information

To learn more about replicating Plain Talk, please contact Tom Klaus at Advocates for Youth by email ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Geri Summerville at P/PV at 215-557-4479 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For more information about Plain Talk please visit http://www.plaintalk.org.

References:

1. Public/Private Ventures. “History of Plain Talk: Goals and Components.” http://www.plaintalk.org/history_gc.htm. Accessed on May 23, 2006.
2. Adapted from “Replicating Success One Program At a Time.” Healthy Teen Network, Washington, DC, 2005. Accessed on May 23, 2006.

June 2006 © Advocates for Youth