Accomplishments of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee (PPMET)
Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee Health Centers had 13,000 clients come to us for over 18,000 visits in 2016. They come to PPMET for confidential and affordable services that include annual exams and pap tests, pregnancy tests, breast exams, birth control, transgender care, PrEP/PEP services, STD/STI testing and treatment, and abortion services.
In 2016, the PG-13 Players, PPMET’s Nashville-area peer educators, performed for 600 youth and 195 professionals, and FYI: For Your Information, our Knoxville-based peer educators, had over 1,400 conversations with their peers. PPMET’s education and training department also trained over 100 parents and professionals to empower the youth in their lives around sexuality. We reached nearly 600 youth in Middle and East TN through our Education Program, Promoting Healthy Decisions. PPMET also distributed 250,000 condoms in Middle and East Tennessee.
PPMET’s advocacy efforts engage activists and donors in protecting access to our life-saving services and access to abortion across Tennessee and the nation. We have over 30,000 people on our email advocacy list, over 5,000 digital activists who regularly take legislative action, and over 1,000 volunteers we can call on to show up and stand up for Planned Parenthood!
Tell us something we may not know about PPMET/PG-13 Players.
The PG-13 Players are often their peers’ only resource for medically accurate, inclusive, empowering sex ed. Throughout a school year, the Players are approached by hundreds of teens around issues ranging from birth control and STIs to gender identity and mental health. They are a wealth of information regarding Nashville organizations teens can turn to for help!
Share one issue you are working to correct here in Tennessee, and why it’s important.
At the core of the PG-13 Players mission is a desire to increase access to sex education and health among teens in Middle Tennessee. Data from the CDC shares that in 2013, 52% of Tennessee teens reported being sexually active. 59% of those teens who were currently sexually active did not use a condom the last time they had sex. Because students do not learn about condom use in public schools, the Players teach their peers about the importance of condoms through conversations as well as performances of their skit. This school year alone, the Players have distributed over 1,000 condoms to young people in Nashville.
Give us a call to action — something each of us can do to help.
This week is one of the PG-13 Players’ favorite of the year: National Condom Week. This is the perfect week to start conversations with the young people in your life! Use this important week to see what they have (or haven’t) learned in school. Be a nonjudgmental space for what can be an awkward topic. Share your family values with your teen—be sure to share why you hold those values. If you feel your teen deserves to learn more than “abstinence-centered until marriage,” in school—get involved! Go to a school board meeting, share your concerns. We need you, Nashville. Our health depends on it. We’ll be wearing our custom-made condom awareness t-shirts and buttons to get conversation started in our community– you can too! Check them out at our online store.
Tell us about your favorite experience/memory/story from your work with PPMET.
Last summer the PG-13 Players got to hit the open road and spend a weekend at the historical Highlander Center’s Alternate ROOTS weekend. Young artists and activists from across the south came together to learn and share their art and passions with one another. New friends were made and the Players were empowered by meeting other young people who are equally passionate about youth justice in the south. The rolling hills of East Tennessee are the Players’ favorite backdrop for a performance to date!