It's not "just say no."

MEDICAL EDUCATION • Community nurses teaching teens medically-accurate 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 percent decrease in teen pregnancy, with a 53 percent decrease in the community served with the longest. This is compared to a 19 percent decrease with Health Region and 21 percent for the state overall.

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

• Amarillo ISD 2006 results indicate more than a 40 percent decline in sexually experienced middle school students (from 14 percent to 8 percent since 2003). In addition, sexual activity decreased among 9th graders in AISD by 33 percent 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 teens have a STI, and 1 out of 2 sexually active teens have a STI.
• Depression: Sexually active teens are more likely to be depressed than virgins.
• Suicide: Sexually active teens are more likely to attempt suicide than those who remain abstinent.
• School Expulsion: Sexually active teens are 3 times more likely to be expelled from school than those who remain abstinent.
• 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 have stable marriages in their 30s than virgin teens.
• Pregnancy: More than 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 consistently has some of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state. Teen pregnancy has a huge impact on our community as it is closely associated with poverty, single parenthood, reduced rate of high school and college attainment and reduced lifetime income.

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 for one or more teens. » DONATE HERE