Sexual Risk Avoidance Education

“Choices Matter” is Solutions Health & Pregnancy Center’s (SHPC) exciting, immersive and interactive sexual risk avoidance curriculum designed to reach teens and college students; to enable them to make good choices that will positively affect their future goals, and to reduce the probability we’ll need to serve them as anxious clients in the future.

SHPC has reached over 45,000 teens in Monmouth County, NJ since 2002 with these proactive presentations which are offered free of charge to public high schools, private high schools, local colleges, and church youth groups.

Some statistics providing the need for the “Choices Matter” presentations follow:

Over half of U.S. teens have had sexual intercourse by age 18.[1]
3 in 10 American girls will get pregnant before age 20.[2]
1 in 4 sexually active teens will acquire a Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) / Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) before the age of 20.[3]
2 of 3 young adults between the ages 15 and 24 in the United States engage in oral sex, , but researchers suggest teens seem to be unaware of the risk of sexually transmitted infections that result from the act.[4]
HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) is more contagious and is responsible for more deaths among women every year in the US than AIDS.[5]
1 in 10 high school students had sexual intercourse with 4 or more persons in their lives.

Discussions and object lessons are designed to help students realize long term effects of casual teen sex. The presentation covers risks of early sexual activity such as depression, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, and abortion. We illustrate how birth control cannot protect the mind, heart and even the body. We help teens appreciate the benefits of developing meaningful relationships, as well as of delaying sexual activity until a monogamous marriage relationship. Teens are inspired to respect themselves and each other while protecting their future. They’re taught why their choices matter.

The presentation includes a time-dependent mix of interactive games and role plays where the truth is presented regarding STI/STDs; risks of multiple partner sexual exposure; risk avoidance vs risk reduction; condom effectiveness; steps to intimacy; options for unplanned pregnancy; and the relationship issues that accompany potential results of sexual choices. Learning is largely a discovery process through the exercises. Many of the topics have been covered at some level in the “Health” curriculum at Middle and High Schools, but not from the perspective and not with the breadth of facts that we provide.

“Choices Matter” is presented as purely health instruction in public schools, without reference to God’s Biblical guidance about the topic, as required in those settings. “Choices Matter” is presented to church youth groups and private schools with the foundation of the presentation being God’s Biblical guidance about sex.

Concluding elements of all presentations include an overview of SHPC’s services, brief personal topic-relevant testimonies of 1-2 of the presenters (often very well received), and distribution of “I’m Worth Waiting For” stickers.

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