San Antonio, TX, has been working to reduce teen pregnancy for over two decades, making considerable progress through collaborations among the city, county, nonprofit organizations, and the University of Texas. A nine-time All-America City, one of San Antonio’s key community collaborations, SA 2020, harnessed civic muscle to create and achieve dozens of measurable goals, including a significant reduction in teen pregnancy.
The San Antonio Teen Pregnancy Collaborative (SATPPC) was formed in 2010 in response to news that Bexar County had one of the highest rates of teen births in the United States. The SATPPC brought together an impressive list of cross-sector organizations, including public entities, community-based organizations, and faith-based and secular institutions. The group’s overall goal was to reduce the Bexar County teen birth rate among females ages 15 to 19 by 15% by 2020, and it exceeded this goal even before that date.
At about the same time, in 2010, former Mayor Julian Castro launched SA2020, a community-wide visioning process. Through a series of public meetings, online chat sessions, and surveys, San Antonians shaped a shared vision for their community by the year 2020. Nearly 6,000 residents, representing a diverse cross-section of San Antonio, were tasked with developing a framework, defining community results, and identifying measures of success. The first SA2020 report, released in 2011, identified eleven community results tracked by 59 indicators, including the goal of reducing teen pregnancy.
In tackling the teen pregnancy goal, the SATPPC pulled together an impressive list of cross-sector organizations, including public entities, community-based organizations, and faith-based institutions.
Prior to the community goal of reducing teen pregnancy, Bexar County Birth Rates for teens aged 15-19 had remained stagnant. Following the SA 2020 goal, the county reached the 2020 target of reducing the teen birth rate by 15% in 2012. Afterward, SATPPC set a bolder 2020 goal—a 25% reduction—and achieved it by 2014.
More specifically, because of the targeted approach of holding each program and organization responsible for its own outcomes, birth rate by race illustrates progress. Between 2010 and 2015, the teen birth rate for Latino teens, aged 15-19, went from 65.4 per 1,000 to 39.0, and the teen birth rate for African American teens, aged 15-19, also nearly cut in half from 45.6 per 1,000 in 2010 to 25.3 in 2015.
One of the stronger partners in this work was UT Teen Health, based at the University of Texas-San Antonio, which partners with community youth-serving organizations to implement adolescent wellness and healthy relationship programs in South Texas. Partners in this initiative implement programs in middle schools, high schools, after-school programs, faith-based organizations, and in community settings with especially vulnerable youth, including expectant and parenting teens.
UT Teen Health provides capacity-building assistance to organizations that implement programs for youth on a variety of topics, including training on the effects of adverse childhood experiences, trauma-informed practices, and its community resilience initiative.
The city’s SA2020 community-wide visioning process also included other goals related to health and fitness, with an overall vision as follows:
“In 2020, San Antonio residents are among the healthiest in the country. San Antonio promotes well-being by providing healthy and affordable food choices, convenient access to green spaces and recreational facilities, and a robust network of physical and mental healthcare designed to eliminate existing health disparities in the community.”
To guide its strategies toward implementation, SA2020 became an independent, non-profit organization in 2012 and was a major feature of the city’s All-America City application. As of 2016, SA2020 was a collaboration of the city, 133 non-profits, 7 major corporations, the San Antonio Area Foundation, and the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, SA2020. 10 years after the project’s indicators were set, 70% of the goals were trending positively.
While the nonprofit organization tracking the SA2020 goals has since ceased operation, the City of San Antonio continues to set and track measurable goals through its quarterly San Antonio 24/7 Performance Report and continues to collaborate with nonprofit groups and the whole community in achieving these goals.
As for teen pregnancy, Bexar County continues to track goals and outcomes, showing in its latest report that as of 2022, teen pregnancy was only one-third of its level in 2007. Thanks to the continued collaboration of UT Teen Health and its nonprofit partners, progress continues to be made.
The National Civic League (NCL) is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing inclusive civic engagement and strengthening democracy by helping communities build more equitable, participatory, and effective local governance.
