About Thrive

Who We Are

Thrive is leading a public-private collaboration to reduce the teen birth rate in Central Oklahoma.

Oklahoma’s teen birth rate is the second highest in the nation, and Oklahoma County has the highest number of teen births in the state. Pregnancy and parenting among teens results in greater risks of poverty, health issues, unstable housing and employment, and food insecurity. Teen pregnancy prevention is a key strategy in the reduction of poverty.

Our collaboration, formed in 2012, created a bold vision to reduce the teen birth rate in Oklahoma County by one third by 2020. In 2015, the collaboration published a Comprehensive Plan to achieve this goal.

The Comprehensive Plan

The Comprehensive Plan outlines three key strategies to reduce teen pregnancy, garnered from research and visits to communities with proven programs that significantly reduced their teen birth rates.

• Education -- provide age-appropriate, evidence-based sexual health education in schools.
• Medical -- ensure access to teen friendly reproductive health services, including a full range of contraceptives, to sexually active youth.
• Community -- engage youth, parents, faith communities and youth-serving organizations in teen pregnancy prevention efforts.

Thrive is the visioning and convening leader of the collaboration, which includes key partners Variety Care, the OKC-County Health Department, Teen emPower!, OKC Public Schools, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and the Kirkpatrick Family Fund. However, dozens of community organizations, professionals and volunteers are working together to help achieve the goals of the plan.