About Us
Free Teens, a project of the Center for Relationship Intelligence, reaches more than 12,000 teens each year in urban & suburban areas of NY/NJ with messages of healthy relationships, self-leadership and service to others. In the last decade, Free Teens has reached more than 100,000 youth, helping them to focus on achieving their future dreams and avoiding the traps that could endanger their lives and goals! Since 1998 when Free Teens began to offer educational and after-school youth development programs in Jersey City and Paterson, birth rates among unmarried 10-19 year-olds in Jersey City dropped by 37% and in Paterson by 29% (1998 to 2005). In demographically similar Elizabeth and Passaic City, which had no abstinence ed program, the reductions were only 10% during those years. Overall, births to unmarried girls ages 10-19 in New Jersey dropped 21% in these years.1
Free Teens Education Saves Taxpayers Millions
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy has estimated that teen childbearing costs in New Jersey cost NJ taxpayers $3.3 billion between 1991 to 2004, or $27,341 per birth.2 The average 14% extra reduction in teen births in Jersey City and Paterson (above the statewide average reduction of 21%) contributed to by intensive Free Teens abstinence-centered education (145 less births in 2004, roughly 700 less births from 2001-2005) has resulted in a projected savings of $19,138,700 in federal, state and local expenditures for public health care, child welfare, incarceration and lost tax revenue over a 14 year period.
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1. http://njshad.doh.state.nj.us/birmunage1220.html
2. http://teenpregnancy.org/costs/tables.asp
Participants Engaged in ’07-’08
• 6,500 Middle School students• 7,014 High School students
• 52 High Schools and Middle Schools
• 19 Club Sites
Total Students Educated: 13,514
• 560 Parents Educated
• 286 Club Members attended weekly meetings/events
Staff
• 7 Full Time
• 24 Part Time
Free Teens Staff & Board of Directors
About the Founder
National Advisory Board
Finances
• Annual Budget: $1,273,237
• Administrative: $101,260 (9% of budget)
• Program Costs (inc. Staff) $1,134,200
Community/ Regional Affiliations
Free Teens works closely with the Jersey City, Bayonne and Paterson School Districts in New Jersey and the Mt. Vernon and Newburgh School Districts in New York. It works closely with the Jersey City Community That Cares Coalition and the Paterson Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition.
4 Stages of Free Teens Leadership Training
Stage One: Free Teens Leadership Training
Presentations & Workbook Activities
The Free Teens Leadership Training powerpoint presentation (available in Spanish & 8 other languages) is used to reach teens about choices and consequences in achieving a successful life as well as the risks posed to future goals by teen sex, as well as alcohol and drug use. Medical facts and real life stories about people who became infected with HIV or other STDS are presented and discussed. Students are asked to clarify their future dreams and life goals. Other topics include dating, refusal skills, dealing with media and peer pressure, discovering self-worth through helping others, and the benefits of healthy marriages, including better physical and mental health, better sex, higher income and better outcomes for children.
Roleplaying of refusal skills & participatory learning using the Free Teens and Relationship Intelligence student workbooks help students to internalize the ideas being presented and apply them to their own lives.
Stage Two: After-school Free Teens Clubs
Teens who have completed the Leadership Training series are invited to join an after-school program that meets at 21 locations in NY/NJ throughout the year. The Relationship Intelligence curriculum is used as the basis for weekly teen discussions in club meetings. Members also participate in Community Service Projects. At the annual year-end banquet club members are honored for keeping their commitments and for contributions to their communities.
Stage Three: Parent Training in “Abstinence Works”
These workshops are designed to motivate parents to take an active part in guiding their children to delay sexual involvement. The program is designed to give parents the information and skills they need to confidently communicate with their children on these topics! Interested parents can join the Free Teens Village Advisory Council to create events that increase community support for the abstinence and marriage message.
Stage Four: Free Teens Media Institute and CultureMachine Activities
Through the Free Teens Media Institute, teens who have come to think more critically about culture in the light of their personal goals and ideals are trained to communicate through one or more or the following media: 1). Video production; 2). Theater; 3). Music; 4). Visual arts; 5) photojournalism, 6). Dance/Performance; and 7) Poetry/Spoken Word. Teen performance groups spread the message of healthy man-woman relationships through theater and dance in New York and New Jersey. CultureShock teams visit schools in New York and New Jersey and work with student musicians to write and record music containing positive messages.
Each year students are invited to attend the Free Teens Media Summit, where media professionals share their expertise, and to enter their own songs or videos in the LoveSmarts Media Festival. Winning songs and videos are posted on CultureMachine.com and included in interactive CultureMachine iMagazine CD-ROMs distributed to teens around the country.
Donors & Supporters of Free Teens USA
Our Deepest Appreciation to Supporters of Free Teens USA!
Free Teens USA would like to thank the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families for grants supporting its healthy relationship education for youth from 2002- 2010.
Free Teens USA would like to thank its foundation donors!
Bodman Foundation
Van Houten Memorial Fund
Provident Bank Foundation
Young Jin Moon Foundation
Free Teens USA would like to thank its corporate donors!
Christian Bernard Inc.
GEM Century
Goad Realty Services Corporation
Ki Delicia Brazilian Specialty Foods
ReMax New Millenium Group
EYAL Corporation
Free Teens USA would like to thank its Cornerstone 300 Donors including:
Heather Partis, Gregg & Elke Noll, Rosmena De Sa, Elvin Javier, Mauricio & Connie Pereira, Keiichi Matsumura, John Hessell, Andrew & Solange Weiss, Brigitte Goodall-Reid
Free Teens USA would like to thank its private donors including:
Robin & Patricia Graham, Nicholas & Keiko Farah, Michael & Sylvia Lima, Dr. Welton Sawyer, and many, many others!
Please consider becoming a partner with Free Teens USA in supporting youth! To contact us, call 201-488-3733 (FREE) or email info@freeteensusa.org.
For more information about Free Teens activities for youth in northern NJ and in New York, visit FreeTeensYouth.com.
Additional Links:
Download the FT 09 Fact Sheet
Free Teens 990 Tax Return for 2008
Notable Free Teens USA practices
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