I. First Steps…
- Educate yourself:
read the booklet "Abstinence ONLY: Facts & Philosophy" (available by contacting this website), or other informational booklets; contact CDC or The Medical Institute (medinstitute.org) for statistics. Ask The Medical Institute for all past newsletters and get on their mailing list – – The Medical Institute is an excellent source of medical information regarding STDs and they have an excellent 7-minute video, "just thought you ought to know" and a slide presentation, "Sexual Health Today". Other outstanding sources of material include Teen-Aid, Sex Respect, Life Cycle Books, Heritage House '76, and Abstinence Clearinghouse. - Locate caring and enthusiastic people to teach abstinence, both classroom teachers and lay people in the community; make sure they heartily believe in the message of abstinence-until-marriage for our youth – this is of the utmost importance! Even if you are the only instructor, you can reach MANY students in a school year, and each one you reach is a lifetime…
- Locate business people and community leaders in your area who strongly believe in the message of abstinence for teens and ask for their financial and moral support. Tell them of some of the general needs (training for abstinence instructors, publicity, teacher manuals & materials, some videos, posters, stickers, virginity pledge cards, etc.)
- Contact your local schools, public and private, to determine if they would allow abstinence instruction for their students.
[If you live in Alabama, it may be very helpful to provide educators with a copy of the Alabama Abstinence Act of 1992, a copy of the 11/98 Resolution by the State Board of Education in support of the Abstinence Act, and the Health Course of Study, which promotes sexual abstinence. If you are in another state or country, try to locate comparable supportive materials. In either case, it may be helpful to give superintendents and principals copies of the booklet "Abstinence ONLY: Facts & Philosophy", available through this website.]
- Contact national abstinence education organizations, such as Teen Aid, Respect Inc., Why kNOw, RSVP, Friends First, Project Reality, Abstinence Clearinghouse, or the AAEP (Alabama Abstinence Education Project) to locate the abstinence instructor training nearest to you and the costs involved. Most can be found in the LINKS section of this website. If this is cost-prohibitive, simply do your own research and prepare a basic series of lesson plans/materials to fit the time slots allowed by schools in which you do training. [Some instructors get a 20-minute slot, so make every minute count!]
- Revisit your local pro-abstinence leaders, pastors, and businesspeople, give them an itemized list of training costs and materials, and ask for their financial investment for the future well-being of the young people of your community. Remind them that the physical and emotional health of the young people will ultimately benefit the well-being of the community.
- If you cannot get much financial support, you can do the training yourself. You can also produce your own brochures and posters
. There are materials available on this website for your use. Remember, it's better for teens to get the abstinence message homestyle than to not get it at all…