It's not "just say no."

MEDICAL EDUCATION • Community nurses teaching teens medically-acurate information about puberty, reproductive anatomy, sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

REALITY EDUCATION • Teaching teens about the benefits of healthy relationships in society, along with the benefits of abstaining from sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence.

SKILLS TRAINING • Teaching teens a set of skills designed to help them resist these risky behaviors. These skills include setting healthy personal boundaries, peer-pressure resistance, communication and relationship skills, goal setting, and media discernment.

It is this combination of knowledge and skills, along with support from parents, teachers, friends, and community members that help teens become and/or stay abstinent and reach their full potential as healthy adults.

What are the results?

Worth the Wait's Abstinence Education is evaluated by Baylor University. The results have been exciting.

• From 1998 to 2002, communities served by Worth the Wait experienced a 32% decrease in teen pregnancy, with a 53% decrease in the community served with the longest. This is compared to a 19% decrease with Health Region and 21% for the state overall.

• In Pampa ISD. the number of 7th and 8th grade teens who were sexually active decreased from 13% in 2000 to just 3% in 2006.

• Amarillo ISD 2006 results indicate more than a 40% decline in sexually experienced middle schoolers (from 14% to 8% sinde 2003). In addition, sexual activity decreased among 9th graders in AISD by 33% from 2005 to 2006.

Why should they wait?

Teen sexuality is associated with many serious social problems including:

• Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs): 1 out of 4 sexually active teens will contrast an STI
• Depression: Sexually active teens are more likely to be depressed than virgins
• Suicide: Sexually-active teens are more likely to attempt suicide than virgin teens
• School Expulsion: Sexually active teens are 3 time more likely to be expelled from school than virgin teens.
• Dropping out of School: Sexually active teens are more likely to drop out of school than virgin teens. At the same time, teens who remain virgins through high school are twice as likely to graduate college than non virgin teens.
• Marital Stability: Girls who became sexually active as teens are less likely to be stable marriges in their 30s than virgin teens.
• Pregnancy: Over half of the girls who begin sexual activity at age 15 or 16 will become pregnant out of wedlock.

In 2004, Texas taxpayers spent 1 billion dollars, the most of any state, on teen childbearing. The Texas Panhandle area consistently has some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state. Teen pregnancy has a huge impact on our communitym as it is closely associated with poverty, single parenthood, reduced rate of high schooland college attainment, and reduced liftetime lincome.

How you can help them wait.

We currently teach lessons to almost 10,000 teens every year, but we need your help! It costs only $57 per student for an entire year of abstinence education. That's less than a dinner and a movie for a family of four! Please help us continue to help teens reach their full potential by sponsoring a year of abstinence education one or more teens. » DONATE HERE