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Commissioners honor UPMC Washington Teen Outreach, proclaim Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month
Summary
The Washington County Board of Commissioners adopted a proclamation recognizing May 2025 as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and praised the UPMC Washington Teen Outreach program’s work; program leaders reported high graduation rates among participants.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners on May 2025 adopted a proclamation recognizing May 2025 as Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month and formally honored UPMC Washington Teen Outreach for its services to local youth and parents.
The proclamation, read by Commissioner Larry Mathew, recounted the program’s history and cited local teen pregnancy-rate reductions since the program’s founding. It noted that the outreach program has provided education and mentorship across all 14 county school districts and described curriculum elements for grades 6 through 12.
Dr. Mary Jo Pekersky, identified in the meeting as director and program founder, accepted the proclamation and described the program’s long history. “I did volunteer with my first young parent in 1976,” Pekersky said, adding the program has supported “over 20,000 teen parents.” She told the board the program’s graduates have a substantially higher completion rate: “We have a very high graduation rate and we know…we’ve never gone lower than 84 percent of our young mothers graduate. Usually, it’s closer to a hundred percent, and nationally, it’s about 40 percent.”
Amy Podrowski, identified as a program coordinator, and Sarah Schumacher from the UPMC Washington Health System Foundation joined Pekersky in accepting the proclamation and thanked the commissioners for the county’s support. The commissioners adopted the proclamation by unanimous roll call.
The board did not vote on additional funding during the meeting; program leaders and foundation representatives described ongoing outreach and requested continued community and institutional support.
