ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Reducing unplanned pregnancies among teens and teaching young people to make better-informed decisions: that was the focus of a Solutions Summit at the University of Rochester.
Rochester is known as a generous community, but we are also known for some poor statistics.
"Historically, we've also been one of the places with some of the highest teen pregnancy rates," said Dr. Andy Aligne with the U of R pediatrics department.
Local panelists discussed the connections between teen and unplanned pregnancy and poverty at the annual Dyson Day lecture at the University of Rochester.
"This is something where we're making progress, we have a lot of tools that work that we know will help, ranging from positive youth development programs to after-school programs," said Aligne.
"Family planning is core to solving so many of the problems we have whether it's poverty, high school drop out, the environment," said Rachael Phelps with Planned Parenthood.
Grishemary Rosado is a youth advocate and former member of Safe Sex.
"I think the most important part is actually being able to point out who those adults are that you can go to and get information from, because a lot of teens don't have that information," said Rosado.
Panel experts say giving teens the necessary tools and education to delay pregnancy is one solution, but add young people also need to embrace healthy relationships and envision a brighter future for themselves.
"They just need to find one person who believes, if you got one person that believes in you and just follow your goals and what your heart desires most," said Rosado.
The panelists agree that in order to explore solutions, teen pregnancy needs to be part of a public discussion.
"We know that teen pregnancy is still an issue and that we've made some progress with it but that we can make a whole lot more progress," said Phelps.