Why
Abstinence?
- 900,000 teenage
women between 15 and 19 years of age become pregnant.(1)
- For each day in
2001 in Alabama there were 24.6 live births to teenage women.
- Teens acquire
20-25% of all STDs while they comprise only 10% of the
population
- Almost one in
four of the 15 million cases of STDs which infect Americans will
be contracted by teens.
- Teenage
pregnancy is on the decline and abstinence education accounts
for approximately 25% of this decline.(1)
Despite the
decreasing teen pregnancy rates, too many teenage women are still
becoming pregnant with three quarters of those pregnancies
classified as unintended. Worse still, approximately one
quarter of all teenage pregnancies end in abortion.(1)
Abstinence
Education
Abstinence
education services provided by Central Alabama Opportunities
Industrialization Center, Inc. (OIC) equip youth with the skills
necessary to "say no" to sex by focusing on three
key areas of education:
- Goals
Identification
- Communication
Skills
- Accurate
information about sex, adolescent sexual development, STDs and
positive self-esteem.
Values-based
Curriculum
The curriculum for
the OIC Abstinence Education Program has been developed by Families
United to Prevent Teen Pregnancies (FUPTP).
FUPTP is based on the premise that by promoting primary prevention activities that promote abstinence and a life options approach, FUPTP will reduce the incidence of pregnancy among and improve life opportunities for participating at-risk youth. One of the best ways to lower the teen pregnancy rate is to provide programming for youth that not only educates, but that allows youth to form positive peer groups.
Abstinence
Participating Sites
- Central Alabama OIC
- Montgomery C.I.T.Y. Program
- St. Jude Education Institute
- William "Kid" Franklin
Boys & Girls
- Future Sites: Jackson
Chapel AME, Kershaw YMCA, Montgomery County (Alabama) Juvenile
Family Court.
Goals and
Objectives of the
OIC Abstinence Education Program
- To reduce the
number of adolescents who will engage in premarital sexual
activity.
- To reduce the
incidence of out of wedlock pregnancies among adolescents.
- To reduce the
number of STD infections among adolescents.
For more
information about the Central Alabama OIC Abstinence Education
Program please contact Sylvia Harper at (334) 265-1594 or via email
at sylvia@centralalabamaoic.com
.
(1) "U.S.
Teenage Pregnancy Statistics", The Guttmacher Institute, Sept.
2006 |
