Abstinence message to hit streets and airwaves

A multi-million dollar grant program is bringing the message of sexual abstinence to the streets and to the small screen.

Gov. George Pataki recently announced the recipients of $5.6 million in state and federal funds for abstinence education, including Community Maternity Services, a Catholic Charities agency. It received $1 million over a five-year period for its Forward Looking Youth (FLY) program for high-risk teens in parts of Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Montgomery counties.

In total, $7 million will be spent on abstinence education statewide, including a television advertising campaign, said Bob Hinckley of the State Department of Health. The TV campaign, known as "Not Me, Not Now," was developed in 1994 in Monroe County as a way to reduce the increasing teen pregnancy rate. According to the Health Department, teen pregnancy rates and teen births have declined significantly in Monroe County since the program began.

Church support

The appropriation of funds for abstinence education is being applauded by Church leaders.

"New York State government will begin an entirely new approach to addressing the problems of out-of-wedlock adolescent pregnancies, births and abortions," said John Kerry, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference. "Because out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates remain shamefully high, it is time to recognize the failure of contraceptive programs, and to invest meaningfully in a fresh, healthy strategy for young people."

Bishop Howard J. Hubbard said the Church has long advocated abstinence as the appropriate message for young people. "What youngsters need is parents, teachers, clergy and government leaders reaffirming their sense of self-worth, encouraging them to be responsible and to avoid the dangers of early sexual activity," he said.

In the community

Community Maternity Services' FLY program will provide teens with the abstinence message right in their community, utilizing their peers and families.

According to Jack Simeone, associate executive director of CMS, the FLY program will utilize youth and parents in high-risk neighborhoods to spread the word about abstinence. "This is not a school model, but a grassroots one," he said.

Some of the neighborhoods include Albany's Arbor Hill, South End, West Hill and North Albany; Schenectady's Hamilton Hill and Vale communities; inner-city Troy and Lansingburgh; and Amsterdam and Fort Plain.

Peers and parents

The FLY program will:

* train teens from these neighborhoods as peer leaders who will present workshops to teens at risk of pregnancy; the workshops will be value driven and will include assertion skills;

* offer programs for parents and middle-school youth, which will be held in homes or community gathering places;

* utilize a video that will be produced by the Albany diocesan Media Office in conjunction with young people;

* sponsor a panel discussion between at-risk youth and pregnant or parenting teens who are CMS clients;

* present the opportunity for teens to participate in a mentoring program where they will be paired with professional adults to help them see there are other life options open to them;

* offer a community campaign to help make it known that adolescent pregnancy is a problem; FLY will be looking for input from the community on how to reverse this problem.

Working as one

Mr. Simeone said the FLY grant represents collaboration between diocesan offices, Catholic Charities agencies and the local Catholic hospitals. The latter are participating by having information available at their clinics in both English and Spanish.

FLY will also be doing workshops with hospital employees who might be parenting high-risk youth. These workshops will help the parents talk to their children about abstinence.

TV effort

In addition to the FLY program, youth will be exposed to the "Not Me, Not Now" television campaign. These TV ads focus on teens' dreams for their future and end with the tagline: "When someone pressures me for sex, I say, `Not me, not now.' Because nothing's going to get in the way of my dreams."

According to Mr. Hinckley, the state will spend between $1.3 million and $1.8 million on the commercials this year alone.

The campaign was selected by the state, he explained, because it was already having positive effects in Monroe County and because the message is powerful.

Stress on abstaining

According to "Not Me, Not Now" materials, many adolescent pregnancy prevention programs offer mixed messages like: "Don't have sex; but if you become pregnant, our system will take care of you," or "Don't have sex; but if you do, use a condom."

"Not Me, Not Now" is an abstinence only campaign that strives to discourage, not encourage, sexual intercourse by teenagers.

The grant program combined with the commercials can do much to help youth. Said Mr. Hinckley, "It's giving them the tools to say no."

(10-08-98) [[In-content Ad]]