Educational seminar gives participants new insights on abstinence education
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, March/April, 2000

The Family Foundation continued its abstinence efforts that began in September 1999 by hosting The Medical Institute in an educational conference on abstinence Jan. 17-18. The ChangeMakers event brought in more than 70 attendees, including concerned citizens, educators, pregnancy care center directors, and Heath Department employees.

Dr. James Davis, M.D., Director of the Division of Adult and Child Health under the Kentucky Department of Public Health, welcomed conference attendees and articulated his support of such efforts to help prevent youth from making the choice to be sexually active before marriage — a choice that can have devastating consequences.

The event was part of The Family Foundation’s annual abstinence program, which this year included a tour of Kentucky by Lakita Garth, a nationally known black beauty queen who speaks across the United States on abstinence issues. The ChangeMakers seminar is also part of an international drive by The Medical Institute to provide solutions to medical professionals, educators, government officials, parents and the media about the serious problems that result from being sexually active before marriage. The problems include a growing number of sexually transmitted diseases and nonmarital pregnancies. 

The interactive program was led by Marcia Ball, Ed.D., and Jennie Cerullo, Ph.D. Both are actively involved in developing and initiating abstinence-eduation curriculums in the United States and across the globe. They focused on giving participants an increased awareness of the youth culture and an ability to develop effective communication skills for teaching sexuality-related topics to adolescents. Ball and Cerullo are co-founders of Kerus Global Educational Services, a non-profit entity that focuses on the prevention of youth risk-taking behavior and the enhancement of cross-cultural communications.
 

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