The Worth Your Wait Program

The Worth Your Wait program has had strong endorsement by the teachers/educators for the principles taught during the program over the past 5 years and has seen significant and very positive results from the students. The WYW program has been used in the Fluvanna, Louisa, Greene, Madison, Nelson, Culpeper, Albemarle, Orange and Rappahannock counties. The schools and summer programs want the WYW program to continue; however, Worth Your Wait was recently notified by the Dept. of Health and Human Services that all CBAE grants nationwide will be defunded in September 2010. The remaining 3 years of the current grant award will be lost. WYW seeks to replace the funding and continue reaching middle and high school students with the message of abstinence and the benefits of marriage as attainable goals for leading healthy, productive and educated lives by all students.
There is a direct correlation between a student’s academic success and his/her sexual choices. Two recent studies of Richmond and Pennsylvania middle school urban students show significantly reduced sexual initiation after abstinence program completion when compared with comprehensive sex education and control group participants.
The Worth Your Wait program focuses on the physical, intellectual, emotional and social health of our youth utilizing technology, video, games, skits, real life examples and testimony. There are website and Facebook links. By reducing sexual teen activity, the incidence of alcohol/substance abuse, depression, violence and sexually transmitted diseases are also reduced and a stronger community is built.
The cost to provide this program to our 3 largest school systems will be $200,000 including the presenters’ salary, travel costs, student material and supplies, and training. For more information on the Worth Your Wait program contact Cynthia Dussault at cindy@worthyourwait.org.