A Pregnancy Prevention Program

Sponsored by The Florence Crittenton Agency

"Students Teaching And Respecting Sexuality" is a panel of sexually abstinent teens, teen parents, and pregnant teens whose purpose is to promote abstinence and responsibility among their peer group to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The panelists share their experiences, both positive and negative to help other teens and pre-teens examine their own feelings about early sexual activity. These teens discuss goals, decision making, and responsibility, as well as, give the facts about pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception as they encourage other young people to consider their own choices and the consequences of their behavior.

Program Specifics:

• STARS identifies the benefits of abstinence and allows sexuality to be discussed openly.
• STARS is an approved part of the Knox County School's curriculum for Family Life Education in the middle schools.
• STARS encourage teens and parents to communicate about issues regarding sexuality and health.
• STARS capitalizes on the fact that young people listen to other young people. Informed and articulate young people, who have chosen primary or secondary abstinence from sexual activity, can help other young people make decisions based on facts.
• STARS promotes decision making and responsibility through the presentations and the Values and Choices cards which are given to students after a presentation.
• STARS reached 16,000 young people and adults during the 1997-1998 school year.
• STARS focuses on the mental, emotional, and physical health of young people in our community and encourages making choices now that can drastically improve the chances of having a healthy, happy, and productive future.
• STARS focuses on the sixth and seventh grades as evaluation results show that the younger students respond favorably to the STARS message. The teen pregnancy rates have declined five years in a row for Knox County. Many teen pregnancy prevention professionals give STARS partial credit for this decrease.

If you are interested in replicating the STARS Program, manuals, and videos are available for purchase.

For more information contact:
Diane Bremseth or Jennifer Yonke
Crittenton Center
1531 Dick Lonas Road
Knoxville, TN 37909
(865) 602-2021

This site is supported by fcaknox.