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Young Women’s Empowerment Project distributes 10,000 condoms in under an hour at pregnant and parenting youth conference

Young Women’s Empowerment Project gave out 10,000 free condoms in under an hour at a Chicago pregnant and parenting youth conference where youth and service providers attendess welcomed the health based information and reprocuvitve health supplies provided by the local organization.
Contact: Cindy Ibarra
Young Women’s Empowerment Project 2334 W. Lawrence, Suite 209 Chicago, IL 60625
773.728.0127
email address cindy (at) youarepriceless.org
www.youarepriceless.org

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Young Women’s Empowerment Project distributes 10,000 condoms in under an hour at pregnant and parenting youth conference

(Chicago--March 30, 2006)- A youth-adult team from the Young Women’s Empowerment Project (YWEP) gave out 10,000 free condoms and health resource information to hundreds of youth, predominately young women of color, and service providers, at the Night Ministry’s 8th Annual Youth Resource Fair and Conference for Pregnant and Parenting Youth and their service providers, held at the Illinois Institute of Technology. YWEP staff were happy to provide such a necessary resource to youth and service providers who face a lack of accessibility to reproductive health materials.

Effective condom use has been shown, through research, to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (S.T.I’s) including H.I.V and to prevent pregnancies. YWEP distributes free condoms and resource information as part of its mission to improve the health of teen girls and young women trading sex for money or survival needs. “It was reproductive justice in its most fundamental form; to be able to provide the girls with reproductive health supplies that they needed and wanted, and that they felt comfortable enough to approach us, because we looked like them, came from where they came from and had experienced the same needs”, stated Cindy Ibarra, YWEP staff representative at the resource fair.

10,000 condoms later, YWEP representatives continued to be approached by more attendees, asking if there were any more condoms available, though unfortunately, had already run out. Nurses, social workers, youth case managers, at a Teen Parent Conference, continued asking to get condoms for their youth. All the while service providers and youth alike voicing their opinions about the lack of accessibility to reproductive health supplies, and the importance of projects such as YWEP to receive the non-judgmental peer outreach services Young Women’s Empowerment Project is able and ready to provide.

Our mission is to offer safe, respectful, free of judgment spaces for girls and young women (ages 12 to 23) impacted by the sex trade and street economies to recognize their goals, dreams and desires.

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