Now I hate to play favorites, but this is news that I absolutely have to share.
You might remember me raving about cheeseheads a couple of months ago. Just to recap, people all over Milwaukee have made teen pregnancy prevention a priority, from the local newspaper to business leaders and dozens of non-profits.
The Teen Pregnancy Oversight Committee, with leadership from the United Way of Greater Milwaukee who is spearheading this effort, the Milwaukee City Health Department, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Urban Population Health, set a goal to reduce teen births in the city among 15- to 17-year-olds by 46 percent by 2015.
This week, Mayor Tom Barrett and Health Commissioner Bevan Baker reported the city's stunning first step toward this goal: the teen birth rate in Milwaukee declined 10% between 2006 and 2007. That's from about 55 births per 1,000 teens to 50 per 1,000, the lowest rate since 1979.
My new favorite city has a long way to go to reach its 2015 goal, but for now this honorary cheesehead is basking in Milwaukee's success.
Read more about the decline and more about the United Way initiative. Any thoughts about how Wisconsinites achieved this success? Is your city seeing similar results? Dying to tell us about your state or community's efforts? Please share and discuss.
Nov 20 2008
Milwaukee's Best 
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