Worth The Wait

Worth The Wait Project Of South Central New York (all seven counties)

Mothers & Babies Perinatal Network is the lead agency for the Worth the Wait Project of SCNY and is funded through a grant from the New York State Department of Health and the Bureau of Child Adolescent Health.

The Worth the Wait Project of South Central New York was conceived in 1996 and funded in 1997 by the New York State Department of Family and Local Health through the Abstinence Education Initiative. The primary focus is the concept of shared responsiblity in pregnancy prevention through an educational and motivational three year program series.

This project has three components.

Worth the Wait classroom presentations.
Teen Summit
Parent Supporting Teens series.

Worth the Wait - classroom presentations

The classroom presentations are a nationally recognized abstinence only curriculum which targets 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. Topics addressed include:

Building Healthy Relationships
Parenting Can Wait
Making Good Decisions

Students learn through an interactive presentation style over three days a year for three years. A formal evaluation is also being conducted as a means to track students responses to an anonymous survey given each year. Since starting in October 1998 Worth the Wait has been in 36 schools throughout the seven county region that M&BPN servces.

The Worth The Wait Project utilizes the following strategies:

Adolescent education to promote abstinence and delays in the onset of sexual activity.
Parent education to enhance parent/child communication about sexuality and other risk-taking behaviors.
Community coordination and support for abstinence education.
Special events to promote improved adolescent self-esteem, life skills and options.
Commitment to building community partnerships for attainment of our primary goals of reducing the incidence of pregnancy, births and prevalence of STDs among teens.
Outreach to high-risk youth. Mothers and Babies Perinatal Network is lead agency for the SCNY Worth The Wait Project.

Parents Supporting Teens (all seven counties)

Part of the Worth The Wait Project, Parents Supporting Teens is a communications series that is designed to help parents. By speaking with our facilitators and receiving information on a variety of topics, parents are empowered to begin a dialog with their teens. Topics of sessions include:

Bullying
Self-esteem
Puberty
Sexuality
Peer pressure

These programs may be held at schools, churches, businesses and community organizations.

Teen Summit

Part of the Worth The Wait Project, the Teen Summit is a one-day educational field trip available to 8th grade students from Broome, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Otsego, Tioga, and Tompkins counties. Activities include a maze, a motivational speaker presentation, one STD interactive, educational demonstration and a demonstration/lecture program on the health consequences of smoking.

More Information...

For more information about any of these programs, please email Alicia Beekman Director of Youth Services.