Parents, professionals work to reduce teen sex
Parents seen as the key in effort to change cultural trends
From, The Kentucky Citizen Digest, Novemer/December, 2001.

It’s time to change the way Kentuckians think about premarital sex among teens — but instead of focusing on teens, the target is parents.   They are the focus of the 2001-2002 Kentucky Initiative for Sexual Health (KISH).
   
“Contrary to what parents might think, studies confirm that they are a key factor in shaping their teen’s attitudes and practices when it comes to sexual involvement,” said Meredith Fenley, Director of KISH.  Fenley took over as director Oct. 1 from Heather Chmieleski who began work on the current effort in February.  “Equally surprising to many parents, abstinence before marriage is a commonly reached goal among teens,” Fenley said.
      
 In recent years, KISH has used school seminars and town meetings featuring well-known speakers to educate teens, educators and parents.  Some of the speakers have included University of Kentucky basketball star Cameron Mills, African American beauty queen Lakita Garth, and a nationally recognized expert in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), Dr. David Hager.  
   
This year, instead of a speaker tour, KISH has developed a brochure for distribution by health care professionals of all specialties to inform their patients of the risks of teen premarital sex, and to challenge parents to get involved with their children.
   
“This year’s effort will help parents discover their key role in this critical area of their child’s life, as well as give them the current facts about teen pregnancy, STDs, and emotional trauma,” Fenley said.
   
Abstinence advocates across the nation have been pointing out the remarkable rise in STDs in recent years, including the viral variety, which have no cure.  “For instance,” Fenley said, “most people are aware of HIV/AIDS and the fact that this deadly disease is viral, but very few know about HPV and that it has the highest incidence rate of all STDs in America.”  Certain strains of HPV cause cervical cancer in women, which without detection can cause sterility or death.  
   
Now there are over 30 different kinds of STDs common in America, compared to just two or three diseases that were prevalent during the 1960s Sexual Revolution.  Those diseases were bacterial and could be cured with penicillin, unlike the viral diseases that have emerged in recent years.
   
Fenley hopes to network with concerned citizens in communities throughout the state and connect them so that each community can develop its own efforts as well as keep abreast of what strides others are making.  Her task is no small undertaking because she is looking for volunteers in each community to help carry the message.
   
KISH is a project of the Family Trust Foundation of Kentucky, a nonprofit educational organization established in 1989 and is better known for its formation of The Family Foundation, its public policy and legislative arm.  As an umbrella, KISH is a statewide cooperative effort of educators, health care professionals, parents, and religious, business, and corporate leaders, as well as public officials, civic groups and other organizations that desire to protect Kentucky’s youth from the dangers of sexual activity outside of marriage.

   


 

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