NCFY Recommends: Get Your Test!

In honor of STD Awareness Month, here are a few reasons to encourage the young people you work with to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, if they are sexually active:

• Young people under age 25 account for half of the 19 million new cases of STDs in the United States each year.
• One in two sexually active young people will get an STD by age 25, though most won't know it.

You can boost your efforts to raise youths' awareness of STD testing and prevention by tapping into Get Your Test, a campaign from the Kaiser Family Foundation and MTV, as well as resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From Get Your Test:

• Organize an event at which youth can get tested
• Request a Get Your Test Toolkit, with t-shirts, stickers, buttons and posters
• Check out what other communities are doing

From the CDC:

• Learn more about STD Awareness Month
• Find a local testing center