By Alison Schumacher, Vice President of Development and Public Relations
Last month, we kicked off a series of stories detailing specific Girls Inc. programs. This month, we’ll highlight our Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy (PAP) program.
PAP provides girls with skills to navigate social pressures regarding sexuality, seek out healthy relationships, and avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Following more than a decade-long decline in teen pregnancy in the U.S., the Guttmacher Institute, whose goal is to advance sexual and reproductive health worldwide, released a report indicating that teen pregnancy rose 3% in 2006. This startling data underscores the need for our PAP programs, which use age-appropriate activities to deliver important information to girls.
- 6-8 year old girls participate in Body Basics which was developed in response to the recent phenomenon of early puberty, occurring for some girls as young as age seven. This program’s goal is to assure each girl that whenever her body starts to develop is the right time for her.
- 9-11 year old girls participate in Growing TogetherSM which is a joint program for girls and a caring adult in their lives. The program facilitates positive communication between girls and adults about information and values related to sexuality and relationships.
- 12-14 year old girls participate in Will Power, Won’t PowerSM which helps girls understand the differences between types of relationships, define the meaning of abstinence, learn female anatomy and physiology, dispel myths about sexuality, explore medically factual information, and set goals for their futures.
