and the “Best of the Best” Winner is … Ted Biderman and his Stuffed Pork Chops!!

According to a new report issued by the National Center for Health Statistics the teen birth rate hit record low levels in 2009, the lowest level in 70 years. Among girls between the ages of 15 and 19, the birth rate fell to 39.1 births per 1,000 teens in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association says abstinence is the leading cause for the decline.  She told the Washington Post “These trends show that the risk avoidance message of abstinence has ‘sticking power’ for young people…This latest evidence shows that teen behaviors increasingly mirror the skills they are taught in a successful abstinence education program.”

A key question when analyzing birth rate data is whether abortion caused the decrease of births. A report issued by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute in January 2008 showed abortion levels reaching historic low rates. The report shows the abortion rate for women age 15-44 down to 19.4 per thousand – lowest since 1974.

When media outlets reported the decline in the number of teen births, Dr. Michael New, a political science professor and researcher on abortion at the University of Alabama, said they should have placed emphasis on abstinence education. He wrote in National Review, “This focus on the economy as the reason for the teen-birthrate decline is rather puzzling.”

The media sources analyzed the decline by saying the slow economy has caused teens to think twice before giving birth or engaging in sexual activity.

Dr. New noted that “The early 1990s recession actually coincided with a temporary increase in the teen birthrate and the economic slowdown in the early part of this decade appeared to have little impact on the teen birthrate.

“A 2006 study by John Santelli, which appeared in the American Journal of Public Heath, found that during the late 1990s reductions in the teen-pregnancy rate were caused by both reduced sexual activity among minors and greater contraceptive use among minors,” New said. “However, one of this study’s flaws is that it assumes that minors will use contraceptives as reliably as adults. Since this is not likely the case, this study likely underestimated the impact of contraceptives for the reductions in teen sexual activity.” But New says abstinence education, as usual, received little in the way of credit for reducing the numbers.

Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council told the Post the de-funding of abstinence education may cause the numbers to go up:  “With a change in policy away from abstinence education, we may expect to see a reversal of the teen pregnancy birth rate in the years to come.”

We need to continue to provide abstinence education to the youth of Iowa. Without federal funding our resources are temporarily limited. We expect that many friends like you will see the positive impact that abstinence education is having and will want to join our efforts by investing in the lives of our teens.

HAPPY  ST. VALENTINE’S  DAY!!

We are so thankful for friends like you who love and care about the mission of Equipping Youth. A great big thank you to all who have become sustainability partners in our investment in children’s lives.

If you have not joined us in our great adventure of bringing the hopeful message of abstinence to all of the youth of Iowa THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BE BLESSED! We are no longer a primarily federally funded organization but one funded entirely by local donations from individuals like you. Will you partner with us to continue and expand our vital work of equipping youth with the skills necessary to make the healthiest choices and to avoid the risk behaviors prevalent among teen??

YOU HAVE HELPED US TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT WORK!! Students are telling us that Powerful Choices is making a significant impact in their lives. Over the past 7 years 27,000 middle school aged youth have been in our Powerful Choices classes and have benefited from the character based abstinence lessons. Our lessons emphasize the benefits of waiting until marriage. In our surveys, youth wrote comments; the best Valentine they could present to their future love:

“I will abstain so I can have a better marriage”

“The best reason for me to remain abstinent until marriage is so I can give all of my best to my future marriage partner”

Our most recent research proved that participants of Powerful Choices lessons are significantly more likely to decide to wait to start relations meant for marriage as compared with control school students who had not participated in our classes. They also indicated that they had remained abstinent 12 months later. Powerful Choices curriculum has been taught in 27 Eastern Iowa Schools and 5 youth facilities. We have trained 70 teachers and youth leaders to teach Powerful Choices resulting in most schools continuing to teach Powerful Choices as part of their curricula for Life Skills and Health classrooms.

PLEASE PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER BECOMING A SUSTAINABLITY PARTNER FOR EQUIPPING YOUTH. We have continued to schedule classes for teachers needing our help, traveling to outlying communities when they call for help, and scheduling lessons in facilities of incarcerated youth.

EVERY DONATION IS USED FOR PROGRAMMING. We have dramatically reduced our budget by downsizing our staff to one paid educator. All office and accounting work is volunteer. We are blessed with several past employees who continue to teach as volunteers.

PLEASE HELP US REMAIN AVAILABLE TO OUR YOUTH! Any size donation is received as a blessing from the Lord and we prayerfully thank God for you, dear friends.  

Ruth Anne Eccles MSN, Executive Director

118 3^rd Ave SE / Suite 431 / Cedar Rapids, IA 52401 / 319.861.2747 / www.equippingyouth.org

“Teen Sex

With a rise in STDs among teenagers, will abstinence or prevention be the answer?”

http://www.dmcityview.com/2010/11/04/features/

 For up to 7 years Equipping Youth has taught its Powerful Choices curricula in many of the Eastern Iowa public and private schools.  During this timeframe, pre- and post-surveys, as well as 6-month and 1-year follow-up surveys, have been conducted with our students and our control groups.  We are excited to present the preliminary results as compiled and reported by University of Iowa research experts.

 The data [below] is proof of the effectiveness of Powerful Choices character-building curriculum with an abstinence message.   The fact that students retained the knowledge taught in these lessons for up to 1 year is phenomenal, in and of itself.  We anxiously await further research results, hopeful that they will show a positive change in the attitudes and actions of teens in regards to sexual relationships.

 The benefit of an abstinence education program, such as Powerful Choices, over a traditional comprehensive sex education program, is that abstinence education stresses avoiding the risk inherent in early teen sexual activity, verses simply reducing the risk with condoms and birth control education and STD screenings, treatments and vaccines.  Powerful Choices also teaches valuable life application lessons such as knowing your boundaries, standing up for your beliefs, setting positive goals for the future and building healthy relationships.

 In today’s society it is accepted policy that our children are taught a no-tolerance standard for the risky behaviors of drinking, smoking, and drugs, due to their known health risks.  Why then is there not the same standard applied to sexual activity?   Why do we teach our youth ‘safer’ ways to engage in this type of activity when the risk of contracting an STD is at an epidemic level and when pregnancy for a teenager may result in a lifetime of consequences?   

 According to the National Center for Disease Control (CDC), 18.9 million people contract STDs each year, 9 million of whom are aged 15-24. More than 65 million people in the United States are currently living with an incurable STD. Some STDs can have life-long and sometimes life-threatening consequences, such as infertility, damage to major organs, and even death. Both STDs and out of wedlock pregnancy may lead to emotional, financial, and physical hardship.  We thank you for your continued support in helping to get the word out to all in our community!

Evaluation Results of Powerful Choices Curriculum

An outcome evaluation was conducted to measure knowledge and attitude changes from participation in the Powerful Choices curriculum.  Students complete pre-tests before the first Powerful Choices lesson and post-tests after the 10^th and final lesson in the curriculum. Follow-ups were completed at 6 and 12 month intervals. The data were collected by evaluation staff who was not involved in the classroom instruction. Student identity is kept confidential by assigning numbers to each; follow-up tests were paired with pre- and post-tests through the use of this number.

 Results have been received from 886 students in 13 schools receiving the Powerful Choices curricula in the greater Cedar Rapids, Iowa area. Of those completing tests, 53 percent were male and 47 percent were female. Below are a few of the questions that we have analyzed to this point in time.

On a scale from “strongly agree” (later scored as “5”) to “strongly disagree” (scored “1”) students were asked to report their opinions in response to the following statements:

Q14 ‘Most teens are not ready to handle the problems that can come from having sex.’

Q15 ‘Most teens know how to say no to sex before they get married.’

Q16 ‘Waiting to be sexually active until marriage is very important.’

Q17 ‘Using alcohol and drugs can influence a person’s decision to have sex.’

Q18 ‘Waiting until marriage to have sex gives a person a better chance of reaching their goals for the future.’

Q19 ‘Abstinence from sex is the only certain way to not get pregnant/get someone pregnant.’

Q20 ‘Waiting until marriage to have sex will give a person more respect for themselves.’

Q21 ‘A sexually active person might get a disease or give a disease to their sexual partner.’

Q22 ‘A sexually active person should stop and wait from now on until marriage to have sex.’

 The differences in average scores of the pre-, post- and follow-up tests within each question set are illustrated below.  Significant differences were found from pre-test to post-test, with more modest changes occurring at six-month and 1-year follow-ups.

 Additionally, in a comparison of pre-test and post-test scores for Q31, “Have you asked your parents a question about sex?”, the percentage reporting “yes” increased from 39% to 48%.  Results also indicated small increases in students talking to their parents more often about what is right or wrong or good or bad about sex and in feeling more comfortable talking with their parents about sex.

Final data have been collected and are being analyzed by The University of Iowa School of Social Work, National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice.  Further analysis will also be conducted to determine who benefits the most from the curriculum. The results of the analysis by the research team will provide important information about the sustainability of the effectiveness of Powerful Choices instruction and the sustainability of the knowledge and attitude changes obtained.

National Health & Human Services Study Released by Obama Administration 

Last week, the NAEA (National Abstinence Education Association) encouraged interested persons to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the public release of a study of cultural values regarding sex education. Hundreds submitted the request for openness regarding the study. As a result, HHS posted the entire study report Monday, August 23.  The members of NAEA applaud your timely efforts and the quick response by HHS to your well-intended requests.
The National Survey of Adolescents and Their Parents, a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adolescents and their “most knowledgeable parent” measured parent/adolescent attitudes and communication for youth who received classes or programs which delivered messages about waiting until marriage to engage in sex. Key findings included:
•    70% of parents agreed with the statement: “It is against your values for your adolescents to have sexual intercourse before marriage.

•    70% of parents agreed with the statement: “Having sexual intercourse is something only married people should do.”

Adolescents had similar responses for these two questions. For complete information on this study see:
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/fysb/content/docs/20090226_abstinence.pdf

 Please continue to contact your state representative to urge their support of Abstinence Education!

Don’t ignore study on teen sexual behavior

By Ruth Anne Eccles, Executive Director of Equipping Youth

Posted in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on February 14, 2010 by Jeff Tecklenburg

In the battle to discover what works to curb teen sexual activity, a study released recently in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine reports important, positive outcomes for high-risk, African-American, middle school students.

The study shows that a high-risk population of sixth and seventh graders receiving abstinence-centered education reduced sexual initiation, reduced the number of sexual partners (a crucial determinant in acquiring a sexually transmitted disease or STD) and further showed that abstinence instruction did not deter the use of condoms (a common charge brought by anti-abstinence critics).

Of particular note, students were significantly less likely to initiate sex with the abstinence-centered approach than any other sex education strategy.

If we are serious about reaching all teens with the skills they need to resist sexual activity, the findings supporting the effectiveness of abstinence education should not be ignored.

Equipping Youth, a non-profit organization in Cedar Rapids, has been teaching abstinence-centered curriculum similar to the effective lessons in this study for the past eight years. Powerful Choices is taught in more than 20 schools in the Greater Cedar Rapids Community. This holistic, abstinence-centered curriculum is favored by the schools’ administrators, educators, youth leaders, parents and students. Preliminary evaluation results of Powerful Choices’ effect on seventh graders, being conducted with the University of Iowa, show significant knowledge, attitude and behavior change among participants. The long-term impact on teens’ sexual behavior at six and 12 months continues to be studied.

Providing our parents and schools with choices regarding the type of sex education their children are offered not only respects local control but underscores the fact that abstinence-centered education is an important response to the complex issue of teen sex. Iowa’s schools should not be forced to provide only “safe sex” or “comprehensive sex” educational curriculum for lack of funding or legislation making only comprehensive sex education compulsory for K-12 grades. Abstinence-centered education offers the only primary prevention message of risk avoidance.

The Obama administration eliminated abstinence education from the 2010 budget, a decision that jeopardizes the sexual health of Iowa’s youths, as well as America’s youths. Equipping Youth received a federal award through the Department of Health and Human Services to teach abstinence-centered education for five years in Iowa, but these funds have been cut off at the end of three years because of this decision.

The positive outcomes of this study provide our Iowa legislators and governor, as well as President Barack Obama, important data for their decisions concerning sex education. We urge a crucial course adjustment in funding so that abstinence-centered education can continue to work to reach teens.

Our governor and legislators should heed such scientific findings and reinstate Title V abstinence funding for our public health departments and Iowa’s schools. Supporting effective ways to reach teens should be our primary concern and separate funding for effective approaches will help in continuing to address this complex issue of teen sex.

Equipping Youth has never claimed to be the only option and source for teens’ needs. It takes all of us to assist youths in making the best choices for their futures.

For additional information, you may read the Medical Institute’s newsletter “Abstinence Ed Program Successfully Delays Sexual Debut” at http://content.enewslettersonline.com/17125/33558.html.