We remember Johnny Appleseed for planting apple seeds everywhere he went.
Wouldn’t you like to be remembered for “planting” abstinence seeds?
Encourage students to start Abstinence Clubs, at their schools, at their church youth programs, through their after-school programs.
A local high school in a rural county had the reputation that EVERYBODY was having sex and that it was a “lost cause”.
A “Johnny Appleseed” talked to the principal, put announcements on morning announcements publicizing a meeting in April, and had 10 students show up. The following Fall, 90 students (over 10% of the student body) signed up for the Abstinence Club which they called their TLC (Teen Life & Community) Club.
When students have the facts and are fired up to become pro-active, they create POSITIVE PEER PRESSURE and can have a much greater effect on the majority of students than we adults can!
You don’t need lots of leaders; you don’t even need lots of club members to make things happen! But the clubs can serve as SUPPORT GROUPS to help students stay committed to abstinence!
Organizing the Group:
- publicize a meeting time and start with the students who attend, no matter how few.
- Develop a Timeline of Activity this will provide accountability
- Get students to think about who they want to be their club sponsor, and get that person involved in any abstinence training conducted for abstinence educators & parents
- Let the students elect officers and do as much of the work themselves as possible
- Bring the club students together outside school for pizza and short training sessions so they can develop friendships and learn about abstinence at the same time
- Make sure the club is recognized by the school
A Few Ideas For Activities:
- Have a booth at the beginning of school for students to sign up. If possible, collect a dollar in dues from each of them, as a sign of commitment, and to provide snacks / drinks during the year for club activities.
- Let students write messages for morning announcements at school. If the administration is not tolerant toward abstinence announcements all year, ask if you can pick a special week, such as National Week of Chastity (the week around Valentine’s Day), or around prom time, and have an abstinence blitz. These short morning announcements can describe the reality of STDs, how to say no, the freedom/benefits of sexual abstinence, etc.
- Write and record radio announcements for Abstinence Until Marriage (AUM). Get students to take them to local radio stations to run. Perhaps a local station will help them produce high quality spots and will run them as Public Service Annoucements (PSAs).
- Write and produce an AUM play (15-30 minute) and videotape it. Distribute copies to local school libraries. Contact local cable stations and ask them to run the video, with publicity, for free.
- Have a poster contest &/or an essay contest. Put posters (laminated if possible) in hallways and classrooms.
- Let students design bulletin boards — at schools, at churches, at the local public library. Topics could include STDs, the benefits of abstinence, secondary virginity.
- Let students take their play — live — to the younger students, with a prepared introduction, so the younger students will understand what it’s about. Make sure your actors enunciate well so that everyone can understand what they are saying.
- Ask the local public library to allow students to put up a display and maintain it.
- Through fund-raisers, donate abstinence-only videos & books to school and public libraries.
- Work with other clubs to sponsor Prom Promise.
- Work with Students Against Drunk Driving.
- Students can request that your city mayor sign a city-wide Resolution Promoting Abstinence in your city. Have the local newspaper and the school newspaper, publish photos & articles in the papers.
- Have students distribute abstinence messages/brochures in restrooms, libraries, stores, etc.
- Have fun activities, such as Ultimate Frisbee [Gary Brown, The Education Connection] or other fun sport activities; pizza / popcorn movie nights with an old/funny movie (G/PG rated, if possible!). (Try to find great old romances, or old cowboy and Indian movies, etc.)
- Print large stickers with abstinence messages to put by public phones, in restrooms, etc. Messages could read, “Be Pure To Be Sure”; “Abstinence is the Smart Choice of the Thinking Generation”; “Do the Smart Thing — Wait for the Ring”.
- Hold Saturday “Abstinence University” seminars for your club members, and for any other interested students, to prepare them for A-Team Leadership. These students will become mentors for younger students, go into classrooms and talk to younger students about refusal skills and the benefits of abstinence (make sure an adult is present), and generally be your Abstinence Ambassadors — powerful!!
- For more activities, click here.
When the students themselves get to this point, POSITIVE PEER PRESSURE is just around the corner!
These activities do not take much money; just an adult sponsor with a vision and a heart for a better world…