funding

It's Scarleteen-o-ween! (And We're Asking for Treats.)

This is a deeply lousy year for Halloween shenanigans. You can't shake candy out of a Zoom meeting, go to a haunted house unless your house is itself haunted, and it's really hard to drum up enthusiasm for a virtual party of any kind right now when we're all sick of the spaces we've been stuck in for months on end, when so many are ill, hurting or both, and, for those of us stateside, when election anxiety has our stomachs and hearts in a vice-grip.

This is also a lousy year for organizations and projects who need donations to keep the lights on and do all the things that they do, Scarleteen very much included. Based on how things have been the last eight months and how we suspect they'll still be for a while, unless something changes, we'll have about $10,000 less to work with this year than we did last year. We’re asking for your help.

Give Our Team a Cheer (and also a little money)!

I want to take time to talk about what I think really makes Scarleteen different from other sources of sex education and ways of doing sex education these days. And no, it's not that, as one of our team says, we've been made of effing rainbows since 1998 (well, not only that, anyway).

The Campfire Strikes Back: Help Us Make a Staff Camp Sequel!

Heather, Troublepants and Moo with Scarleteen flagLast summer, we made a big, amazing thing happen for the first time. We brought nearly all of our staff and volunteers from across the United States, Europe, Canada and even Australia, to one beautiful place for a five-day staff campout and epic team-building retreat. And we couldn't have done it without the financial help we got from hundreds of our fantastic supporters (you rock!).

Help send us to camp!

This summer, we're making a big thing happen we've never been able to do before: we're bringing all our staff and volunteers -- from the United States, Europe,  Canada, and even our staffer in Australia -- to one place for a giant staff campout and team-building retreat.

From a Strike to a Home Run: A Thank You (and also a nudge, but just a little one)

Today, like most days, our site has been up and running, including its tremendous archive; probably serving around 20,000 users by the end of the day. All of our direct services are live: our message boards, SMS service and live online chat. Myself and some of the volunteers are in the middle of creating new content, like one of our in-depth articles or advice columns. The daily and collective creative brainstorming, problem-solving, observing and reflecting that goes on behind the scenes amongst our staff and volunteers, and together with our users, can and will happen today.

May Day 2014: Scarleteen Strikes (Or, With Your Help, We Don't.)

UPDATE! We -- and you! -- did it! WE SO TOTALLY DID IT! We met the minimum goal we needed to to avoid a strike and having to shut down any of our services. We can't thank the 1,000+ of you enough who have helped us do this, and who have made it possible for all the young people who need and use our services to keep on using them without interruption.

Obtaining Abortion When You Need Funding and a Judicial Bypass

FaithS
asks:
I am 16 years old and already have a 7 month old baby. My son has a lot of health problems, he was born with a lung disease and has holes in his heart. I recently found out I was pregnant again and I'm not for sure how to go about it. I've only told one person and that's my older sister....

Abortion, Pregnancy Options & Scarleteen

While we're on this topic today, on this day, just a couple reminders about where we stand and what we can help with should you or someone you know become pregnant when it was not wanted or intended.

1. We are a fully pro-choice organization, resolutely supportive of everyone's -- at every age -- right (even when they legally do not currently have that right) to choose to remain pregnant or terminate a pregnancy; to choose to parent, to choose to arrange an adoption, or to choose abortion.