Training weekend precedes launch of KISH project
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, Sept, 1998

In preparation for the KISH project, Hopkinsville was the center of activity for a number of abstinence training presentations over the weekend of August 29-30. Dave Scherrer and Linda Klepaki from the “Worth Waiting For” organization in Denver, Colorado, were the key speakers in the event coordinated by The Family Foundation.  Both Scherrer and Klepaki have had significant experience in the area of abstinence education and are highly regarded in the abstinence movement.

On Saturday, volunteers from Madisonville, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville and Henderson participated in a session jointly led by Klepaki and Scherrer.  Though there was a great deal of information to absorb, two of the most exciting concepts from the day were:  1) Scherrer’s careful description of a model for setting up abstinence mentoring programs at the various centers — a workable, practical approach which the volunteers embraced whole-heartedly; and 2)  Klepaki’s vision, generated through her relationship with the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin,Texas, for a soon-to-be-completed a comprehensive sex education curriculum which is entirely abstinence-based.

This curriculum will be the first such alternative to SIECUS material for public schools.  She also explained that the staff of “Worth Waiting For” will translate these same materials into a Christ-centered curriculum to be made available to churches, home schoolers, Christian schools, etc. so that both secular and religious settings can access the material.

Sunday brought even more opportunities to explore abstinence education, beginning and ending with presentations in several Hopkinsville churches, but with a joint parent/teen seminar in the afternoon.  (Yes, you CAN get families together in the same room on this topic!) The parent/teen time was particularly enlightening because all could look at sexuality issues through the perspective of both generations.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst