Project Respect Ed is an abstinence education program supported by a Title V Abstinence Education grant, funded with federal money given to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. The program provides abstinence education to three target cities in central New Jersey: New Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Plainfield. Only four of these grants were awarded in New Jersey.
We use our own eight-week Project Respect Ed curriculum for students in 6th and 7th grade and the Yes You Can Experience True Freedom, an eight-session curriculum for 8th grade students. This program challenges students to evaluate the positives and negatives associated with risky behaviors, particularly teen sex. Highly interactive, the program emphasizes the development of healthy relationships with friends, dating partners and family. We are currently providing classes in all public middle schools in New Brunswick and in a charter school in Plainfield.
As part of our outreach in Perth Amboy, we partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs to reach out to students in their summer camp program of 2012 . We also partnered with the New Brunswick Civic League’s summer camp for city students. This provided a new opportunity to work with at-risk pre-teens and teens in our target cities.
We continue to provide parent and professional workshops, as well as the popular Mother/Daughter and Father/Son programs in community organizations and area schools. Our Mother/Daughter and Father/Son programs held in area schools and at Saint Peter’s University Hospital is also supported by the Title V Abstinence Education Grant. These programs give pre-teens and teens and their parents the opportunity to spend an evening or an afternoon together, learning and talking about the changes and challenges of adolescence. The parent/child bond is supported and affirmed, and participants find it much easier to communicate with each other once the ice has been broken.
To obtain further information concerning any of these programs, call the Fertility Awareness Program/ Project Respect Ed at: 800-334-0699 (toll-free in New Jersey) 732-745-8600, ext. 8862 or email: rkerns@saintpetersuh.com.