Children, Families to Hold 21st Annual Rally for Abstinence
May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month

Milwaukee, Wis. (May 3, 2007) – Children, their families and the community will celebrate practicing abstinence from all high-risk activities and breaking the cycle of teen pregnancy with the 21st annual rally and march sponsored by Rosalie Manor Community & Family Services on Friday, May 18, at 4:30 p.m., in Sherman Park at the Northeast corner of Sherman Blvd. and Burleigh St.

A Rally for Abstinence, including entertainment, live music, motivational speakers and a free picnic will be held after the march from Sherman Park to Gengler Park (Burleigh and 50th St.). The event’s goal is to raise awareness and send a message to the community that 6 out of 10 youth are now choosing the abstinent lifestyle and are making positive choices in the face of increasingly confusing messages in the media and entertainment world about sexuality.

The event is part of a day-long effort to promote healthy behaviors and relationships, with 1,000 youth involved in abstinence programming with the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (ARCW), Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee, the Center for Self Sufficiency (CFSS), Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), and Rosalie Manor participating in city-wide Abstinence Awareness Day events. In addition to the Rosalie Manor march and rally, many youth will participate in an event at the Cousins Amphitheater at State Fair Park from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Organizers will spend the day educating youth on the importance of abstinence from risky behaviors including sexual activity outside of marriage, violence, and alcohol and drug abuse.

Established in 1986, Rosalie Manor’s Families United to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (FUPTP) serves youth ages 12-18 and their families. Rosalie Manor’s partners in the Milwaukee Alliance for Teaching Abstinence are the New Concept Self Development Center, Northcott Neighborhood House and the Milwaukee Public Schools’ Best Men Programs. Rosalie Manor has established many programs and services that combat teen pregnancy and promote sexual abstinence, helping educate at-risk teens and working to reduce the community’s high teen birth rate.  At the same time, these programs strive to help youth develop skills that enable them to handle the challenges of peer pressure, low self-esteem, understanding sexually transmitted diseases and forming healthy relationships.

The FUPTP program stresses that one of the best ways to lower the teen pregnancy rate is to provide programming for youth that not only educates, but allows them to form positive peer groups.

FUPTP utilizes a nationally recognized and copyrighted curriculum to promote abstinence until marriage and develop healthy life skills, as opposed to the damaging alternatives of spending life on the city’s streets and involved in unlawful activities. FUPTP is made up of community-based and school-based components. The community-based component is open to anyone living in Milwaukee County and is conducted during the summer.

May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month (NTPPM), an opportunity for communities to work together to prevent teen pregnancy. Nationally, teen pregnancy rates have decreased by nearly 30 percent in the last decade; however, the United States still has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births among all industrialized countries. Each year over 850,000 U.S. teens get pregnant.

The Milwaukee Abstinence Programs are designed to 1) reduce the number of adolescents engaging in premarital sexual activity, 2) reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies among adolescents, and 3) reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents, thereby improving the health of youth in Milwaukee. To accomplish this goal, ARCW, Boys & Girls Clubs, MPS, CFSS and Rosalie Manor facilitate abstinence-until-marriage education and coordinate abstinence-related events for youth, parents and the general community.

A 2007 survey conducted for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy shows that nine in ten adults and teens agree that young people should get a strong message that they should not have sex until they are at least out of high school. The message is clear: more and better interventions are needed to lead to clear delays in sexual activity among young people.

Milwaukee and Wisconsin continue to experience high teen birth rates. According to “The Right Start for America’s Newborns” (Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2005), Milwaukee’s rate of teen births is among the highest among the nation’s 50 largest cities, ranking second for the percentage of total births to teens, with Wisconsin ranking number one for birth rates in African-American teens.

For more information on the march and rally, call Dawn Groshek at 414-449-2868, ext. 202.

Media Contact:
Steve Gardner
Johnson Direct, LLC
262-782-2750