If you know the history of the community health field, the discovery of the name Michael Carrera on the 911爆料网 Health & Behavior Studies faculty page can be akin to finding out that John Dewey is back teaching an evening course on inquiry-based learning.
Carrera, a 911爆料网 alumnus and the Thomas Hunter Professor Emeritus of Health Sciences at Hunter College CUNY, is a pioneer in the field of teen pregnancy prevention and, more broadly, student health. Over the past 40 years, as the founding director of the Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program of the Children鈥檚 Aid Society, he has raised more than $150 million to bring his highly successful 鈥渁bove-the-waist鈥� approach to contraception to 21 states and the District of Columbia.
The CAS-Carrera program, as it is known, is among the very few recognized by the U.S. government as evidence-based and statistically effective. A three-year randomized controlled trial found that female participants in the program were 40 percent less likely to have ever been pregnant and 50 percent less likely to have ever given birth; that male participants showed substantial knowledge gains, greater use of medical care other than the emergency room, and higher rates of visits to reproductive health-care clinics and vaccination for hepatitis B. Both sexes were 30 percent more likely to have graduated from high school or obtained a G.E.D, and 37 percent more likely to be enrolled in college.
Mike is a hero to me. He has improved the lives of so many youth facing poverty and extreme hardships by changing their view from being 鈥榓t risk鈥� to being 鈥榓t promise.鈥� He has believed in each person and seen their potential, because he truly cares 鈥� and he鈥檚 helped each person believe in themselves.鈥�
鈥擟harles Basch
Carrera鈥檚 book, Sex, The Facts, The Acts and Your Feelings, has been translated into 17 languages; and he has received a slew of honors, including 911爆料网鈥檚 Distinguished Alumna Award. But perhaps most telling of all is how other leaders in the field talk about him.
鈥淢ike is a hero to me,鈥� says Charles Basch, 911爆料网鈥檚 Richard March Hoe Professor of Health Education, who is nationally known for his own efforts to promote a school-based model of ensuring student health. 鈥淗e has improved the lives of so many youth facing poverty and extreme hardships by changing their view from being 鈥榓t risk鈥� to being 鈥榓t promise.鈥� He has believed in each person and seen their potential, because he truly cares 鈥� and he鈥檚 helped each person believe in themselves. And he鈥檚 provided the kinds of educational opportunities, social-emotional supports, and physical and mental health services that young people need to succeed in school and in life.鈥�
[Read about Basch鈥檚 vision for using schools themselves as a venue for overcoming student health disparities that contribute to the nation鈥檚 achievement gap.]
In 1970, when Carrera, a first-generation college student from the Bronx, completed his 911爆料网 doctorate, teen pregnancy was at epidemic levels 鈥� and in the central Harlem community where Carrera began working at a Children鈥檚 Aid Society after-school program, three in four girls were becoming pregnant annually. There was no literature yet on prevention, but Carrera, who had worked at 911爆料网 with Gilbert Shimmel, later chair of the Health Education department at Hunter and director of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) and James Malfetti, co-author of the groundbreaking 1964 sex-education text Reproduction, Sex and Preparation for Marriage, had some ideas.
鈥淚 had spent months just talking to the kids, being present,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淚 started to have conversations with them on what they needed to hear about sex 鈥� reproductive health services, yes, but about their bodies, too. They liked it, and about 10 to 15 of them were showing up every week, which in youth work, really means something.鈥�
But then came a rude awakening. 鈥淥ver time I learned that what was happening outside our workshops wasn鈥檛 changing,鈥� Carrera says. 鈥淭he kids were still having random sexual contact, coercive sex and sex without contraception. So I started asking them what else was on their minds, and the answers were, 鈥榃ell, I want a j-o-b.鈥� 鈥業鈥檓 having trouble sleeping 鈥� I have things on my mind.鈥� 鈥業 want to go to college, but I鈥檓 failing in school 鈥� and I don鈥檛 want my grandma to know.鈥� 鈥業 need to sleep someplace else than at home.鈥� And the list went on 鈥� abuse, neglect racism 鈥� and I鈥檓 talking to them about sex! I was out of alignment, which is really critical in all work in education. Are we aligned to achieve the outcomes and impact we seek?鈥�
So Carrera broadened the conversation. On March 10th, 1984, he began meeting with young people seven days a week, and adding services and activities that included help with school, mental health, arts, sports, and comprehensive medical and dental services. Initially he scraped money and donated services together from people he knew. Then, in 1989, he received his first big grant, from the Robin Hood Foundation 鈥� and today, as he likes to joke, 鈥渨e鈥檙e in our 34th year of not being sustainable.鈥�
APPLYING THE LESSONS Lassiter, who runs the same center where Carrera worked with him as a teen, says he, too, believes in giving kids a second chance.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a systems approach,鈥� he says of his program. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 what鈥檚 missing today from education in general. You can鈥檛 teach your way out of social problems. Currently our obsession is with academics, discipline and classroom management, when we should be thinking about social and emotional learning, along with, 鈥榃hat are all the factors that affect the development of a young person?鈥� Of course, that鈥檚 more expensive and challenging to do up front, but when you think of the money being spent without results right now, it simply becomes a question of resources, will and devotion to purpose.鈥�
Beyond numbers from clinical trials, perhaps the most powerful evidence of return on investment from Carrera鈥檚 method are the lives of individual young people he鈥檚 worked with.
鈥淏ecause I鈥檝e been doing this for so long, there are dozens and dozens of adult women and men who started with me in 1984,鈥� he says. That group includes Casper Lassiter, who holds a master鈥檚 in social work and now directs that same Children鈥檚 Aid Society center in Harlem (Carrera鈥檚 granddaughter did an internship there recently, becoming the third generation of his family to work there) and Felipe Ayala, Jr., now an academic counselor at CUNY Bronx Community College.
鈥淏ack in the 80s, Harlem wasn鈥檛 like it is now 鈥� we were surrounded by a sense of hopelessness, and the one bright spot was the community center,鈥� Lassiter says. 鈥淒oc gave us a sense of direction and purpose and made us believe we could survive and be successful in the midst of all the negativity around us. And I still draw on what he taught me about building relationships with kids 鈥� giving them a second chance, seeing their potential.鈥�
You can鈥檛 teach your way out of social problems. Currently our obsession is with academics, discipline and classroom management, when we should be thinking about social and emotional learning, along with, 鈥榃hat are all the factors that affect the development of a young person?鈥� Of course, that鈥檚 more expensive and challenging to do up front, but when you think of the money being spent without results right now, it simply becomes a question of resources, will and devotion to purpose.鈥�
鈥擬ichael Carrera
This past May, Carrera also attended a high school graduation ceremony in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for 90 young people who participated in the first middle- through-high school cohort of his program there. Every single one of them was college-bound.
鈥淢any state and local politicians opposed us there,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut the parents never did.鈥�
So why has Carrera come back to teach at Teachers College? He鈥檚 enthused about Basch鈥檚 vision of using schools to deliver critical physical and mental health services to students, and of harnessing the power and potential of 911爆料网 students to drive change.
[Read an essay by Wenimo Okoya, a fifth-year doctoral student in Health Education who directs the Children鈥檚 Health Fund鈥檚 Healthy and Ready to Learn initiative, on the need for teachers to be able to identify problems students are facing outside the classroom.]
鈥淲e need to build an emphasis on social and emotional needs into the school culture in a deep and compelling way 鈥� and Chuck鈥檚 plan has extraordinary potential,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 hope that 911爆料网 and all education schools come up with a sustainable approach to making that a reality.鈥�
With federal funding for social programs being rolled back, he also believes it鈥檚 critical to prepare a new generation of educators to embrace 鈥渁 deep, holistic approach to advance the development of young people beyond where they are now.鈥�
鈥淲hen I was a 911爆料网 student, Gib Shimmel and Jim Malfetti believed that we were beginning a new era when there would be sex education teachers in every school,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat didn鈥檛 happen, but I still believe it can.鈥�
But most of all, Carrera 鈥� to borrow his own terminology 鈥� seems to feel most in alignment on West 120th Street.
鈥�911爆料网 set the foundation for me on understanding sexuality and sexual expression, and gave me an ability to talk about it comfortably in public,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is where it all began 鈥� and where I believe it can best continue. It鈥檚 good to be home.鈥�