Quote:
Originally posted by Discogoddess:
Another thought: I used to work with a foundation whose funding focus was girls' programs, not the direct, teen-pregnancy-prevention-type programs, but things like theatre, soccer, dance, poetry, etc. The thought was that girls who are engaged in positive activities and short- and long-term goal-setting/achievement will be by definition less likely to get caught up in having sex that results in STDs, pregnancy, etc. The foundation even had a council of girls who acted as grantmakers themselves, which served as a way to give girls the opportunity to be about grown-up business that had a positive impact, without always pounding the "don't get pregnant" message into them.
I like that model-which has been touched upon by previous posters-that puts the focus on positive living, not just pregnancy prevention. We need holistic solutions, not only the band-aids I spoke of previously.
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I like your point about getting involved DG. In fact, Alpha Kappa Alpha's Arts target is one of the things that made it attractive to me in the first place.
I took all sorts of dance classes when I was in middle/high school. When I look back on it, all of the girls at my studio graduated High School (many with high GPA's), went to college, and kept our virginity for longer than many of our non-active peers if at all(yes we were all friends and told our business...lol). We also had higher self-esteem than many other girls and had despite what they say about dancers, we had pretty good body image. We were very disciplined and quite proud of our skills that we had worked so hard for. I really think that was the key. We had something other than an infant in our arms to be proud of. Any female with a women's body can have a baby. We had ribbons, trophies, worn ballet shoes, and a standing ovations.
I was lucky to grow up in a place where even if you didn't have the 45 bucks a month to take ballet you could still pay 99 cents for a jump rope and enter the double-dutch tournament. Even though my town was not small, it was very community based. I really do believe that when people come together they DO better.
I just wish there were more community based programs out there. Like DG said, it's not about staring more pregnancy prevention programs. It's about teaching our children with love, attention, and positive examples.
Hybrid Mode
