South Side Community Coalition Launches “Teen WAIT Program”
The Southside Community Coalition is one of only nine agencies throughout Michigan to be awarded a Michigan Abstinence Program grant from the Michigan Department of Community Health. This is the first year of a five-year, federal grant funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This $100,000 grant provides funding for comprehensive, evidence-based, health behavior change programming and an abstinence public awareness campaign in Ingham County.
“Our Teen WAIT Program aims to positively impact adolescent health by promoting abstinence from sexual activity and other related risky behaviors, such as alcohol, tobacco and other drug use,” said Program Coordinator Ramon Bryant. “The program is for youth, ages 12 to 18 (up to 21 years for special education populations) and their parents/guardians.”
The Southside Community Coalition has three years of successful experience delivering these types of services via grants from the Ingham County Health Department. The Teen WAIT Program provides 14 hours of training and fun activities for 250 youth at the South Side Community Coalition, schools, churches, community centers, etc. via intense and direct programming, which is age, gender and culturally relevant, promotes personal respect and responsibility, and builds skills for dealing with peer pressure. “Youth are given the tools they need to make healthy choices and parents are empowered to take more active roles in their child’s development and educational endeavors,” said Bryant.
Lansing’s statistics are alarming. According to the 2007 Kids Count, the teen pregnancy rate in 2005 was 48.2% of 1,000, 16.9% live below poverty, 821 youth will contract an STD by age 19, and 50.7% of all births in Lansing were to unwed mothers.
Please contact us at 517-394-6846 if you have any questions, need additional information, or to learn how to enroll in this exciting program. Youth serving agencies are also invited to take advantage of these FREE services on a “first come, first served basis.”
Document Destruction Day
On Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
Friedland Industries, Inc.
405 E. Maple St. in Lansing’s Old Town
Lansing, Michigan 48906
Destroy sensitive documents at this free, regional,
residential use only recycling event.
Recycle your obsolete bank statements, canceled checks, insurance documents, monthly credit card and mortgage statements and student school work. In fact, recycle any residential paper or junk mail that you want. This is the perfect opportunity to clean out your files while protecting your identity and positively impacting the environment. The paper will be shredded and recycled into other products. This is a free event and the document destruction is guaranteed.
Friedland Industries is located on Maple St. between Grand River Ave. and Oakland St. west of Cedar St. in Lansing’s Old Town Neighborhood. Contact the Old Town Commercial Association office at 517-485-4283 for additional information.
