From November 6-10, 12 high school students from different regions of Georgia traveled to Washington, DC with the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention for an intensive advocacy training workshop hosted by Advocates for Youth.

The young people, along with 50 other youth from Texas, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina, Jamaica and Ethiopia were trained in media relations, grassroots organizing, online advocacy and work plan development. The training culminated in visits to their legislators on Capitol Hill to request that they reject Title V abstinence only funding, which has been shown to be ineffective in preventing teen pregnancy and to redirect the funding to comprehensive sex education.

These 12 students are leaders in the State Youth Leadership Council of Georgia who over the next three years will work with local and statewide organizations to advocate for the implementation of comprehensive sexual education in their local school systems.