Statewide Chair
Mary
McLellan
Heritage Community Services
Regional
Chairs
Mariscia
Cooper
(Pee Dee)
Charlie Lybrand
(Lowcountry)
Lenna Neill
(Upstate)
Rev. Randy Riddle
(Grand Strand)
Dr. Roger Rollins
(CSRA)
Charlotte Valentine-Green
(Ace Basin)
Advisory Council
Eugene Bacote
Darlington School District
Dr. Vera Bailey
Hilton Head Preg. Care Center
Pamela Berry
Colleton Fire and Rescue
Dr. Vonda Calcutt
Lowcountry Ctr. Diabetes
Sen. Chip Campsen
Charleston/Berkeley
Rev. Chuck Coward
Charleston Outreach
Robin
Crosby
Colleton County
Ligure Ellington
Ret.Capt. Charleston City Police
Dr. Randy Goings
Chiropractic Physician
Faye Hill
Lowcountry Pregnancy Center & SC Association Pregnancy Care
Centers
WC Hoecke
Fatherhood Practioner
Leroy Lewis
Upward Bound at Cof C
Norman L. Moore, Jr.
Colonel, USAFR(Ret)
Cyndi Mosteller
Comm. for Higher Education
Alexia Newman
Carolina Pregnancy Center
Fred Payne
Marriage Savers of Upstate
Jerry & Barbara Seymour
R& R Marriage Min.
Ronald Shoupe
Colleton County
Dr. A. V. Strong
A Better Way, Inc. (Gang Out)
Dr. Robert Thomas
Pulmonary Medicine
Pastor Phil
Thrailkill
St. Luke UMC Hartsville
Kelly Walker
Upstate Fatherhood Coalition
April 8, 2010
SC Healthy Family Formation Coalition E-News!
April
is Prevent Child Abuse Month
“A
child who is not living with his or her own
two
married parents is at greater risk for child
abuse.”
Pro-abstinence
education op eds and a letter to the editor
printed…
The
truth about abstinence
The State,
Opinion Editorial
Mary
S. McLellan – Guest Columnist
For all the hand wringing
over teens having sex, becoming parents, contracting diseases and other
undesirable consequences, the polarization surrounding the sex education
debate challenges the sincerity of our collective concern. Most adults
would agree that teens are ill-prepared to bear the negative outcomes of
early sexual activity. However, … Read
the complete op ed…
Character-based abstinence
education good start for life
Post and Courier, Letter to the
Editor
Heritage Community
Services
A handful of activists, with
marching orders from radical, national groups like SIECUS (Sexuality
Information and Education Council of the United States), Advocates for
Youth and the ACLU, are working to convince legislators, parents,
teachers, school administrators and the good citizens of South Carolina
that abstinence education shouldn't be allowed in schools and should be
defunded. Read
the complete letter…
Research
proves that abstinence programs work
The
Julie Hershey, Upstate Regional Director
Heritage
Community Services
It
is time for abstinence organizations to herald the good news that
abstinence education is an enormous success — it works. After years of
evaluation, research findings for the Heritage Keepers®
Abstinence Education program reveal significant change in high risk
attitudes and behaviors among adolescents. Heritage students are shown to
initiate sexual activity at a rate half that of non-program students. That
translates into lower rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted
diseases and emotional consequences. Read
more…
Since abstinence education has been blamed
for 100% of the increase in teen birth rates,
would it not be ethical to restore some credit
for the apparent unexpected decrease?
Read the following
report…
Teen
Birthrates Decline After Two-Year
Increase
Reversing
slight increases in teen birth rates from 2006 and 2007, the CDC released
2008 figures that illustrate a continuing downward trend. Teen birth rates
hit a high of 62/1000 in 1991. The rates dropped to 41.5/1000 in 2008. The
decline was most notable (4%) among teens aged
18-19.
Valerie
Huber, Executive Director of NAEA noted:
“So
that the positive trend begun a decade ago can
continue,
we
should redouble our efforts to help teens avoid
all the consequences of sexual activity,
including teen childbearing."
The
President eliminated all funding for abstinence-centered education in his
FY 2011 budget request to Congress, but Huber adds:
“Today’s
announcement provides Congress an opportunity
to
make a course correction by again placing a priority
on
the risk avoidance abstinence-centered message.”
NAEA
appeals to all groups who genuinely seek the best health outcomes for
youth to join in encouraging the avoidance of all sexual
risk.
“Today’s news shows that teens are able to make good decisions, even in the midst of a sex saturated culture.
We
must assure that they continue to receive tools
for achieving the best sexual health outcomes
– in order to escape all the risks of sexual activity,”
concluded
Huber.
Access
the full report by the CDC.
Marriage
Savers Webinar offered
This
online Prepare/Enrich Training is for Clergy and Lead Mentor Couples. Registration is due by
Follow the SC-HFF Coalition on Twitter!
Join the Heritage Keepers® Facebook Cause
The South Carolina Healthy Family Formation Coalition (SC HFF Coalition) is organized and staffed by Heritage Community Services. The SC HFF Coalition promotes child and family well-being by providing opportunities for statewide communication about such issues as: adolescent pregnancy, unwed childbearing, fatherlessness, sexual exploitation of our youth, dating violence and domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, gang activity and youth violence.
Coalition members support healthy family formation initiatives that integrate character-based life skills, teen pregnancy prevention with an emphasis on abstinence-centered education, and the importance of fidelity-within-marriage.
Together
we can impact our culture so that forming healthy families becomes a norm,
rather than the exception, for
Please, forward this E-News to interested friends, family and colleagues and ask them to consider joining the Coalition.
PRIVACY POLICY: Information you share will never be sold, rented, or given to any third party.
Contact
Mary
McLellan
,
Statewide Chairman
(843)654-7740
ext.122
