November 16, 2005

Pregnancy Prevention Program to be Offered in Sandpoint

Students Learn to Become Mentors

SANDPOINT - Students from Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School will be trained as teen mentors in the PEAK program next week. The training is scheduled to run 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Bonner County Library in Sandpoint.

PEAK (Peers Encouraging Abstinent Kids) is a teen abstinence program offered in North Idaho schools since 1996. The innovative teen pregnancy program that had its beginnings in North Idaho is now offered statewide. PEAK is part of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (APP) program.

Students will be taught the abstinence-based curriculum designed to instruct junior high students in the risks of early sexual involvement, to help them cope with peer and social pressure to have sex, and to give them practical skills in saying "no."

The PEAK program will provide students the tools necessary to make good decisions regarding any at-risk behavior, including tobacco and alcohol use. Upon completion of the training, the high school PEAK mentors will be assigned to middle school health classes, where they will deliver the curriculum for one hour per week over a six-week period under the supervision of the middle school instructors.

District 1 PEAK program is funded by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's Generation of the Child, Community Collaboration contracts, the Idaho Governor's Council on Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention and the state of Idaho APP program. Donations for training are provided by the Idaho Dairy Commission.

Lynn Benson, mentor advisor and counselor at Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School, coordinates the PEAK program at Lake Pend Oreille Alternative High School.  Brittany Baeumel, APP coordinator with Panhandle Health District, will conduct training.

Every day in Idaho, three girls under the age of 18 become pregnant. Yet, with the help of prevention programs such as PEAK, Idaho's teen pregnancy rate continues to decline. In 2003, the pregnancy rate for girls 15-17 was 20.9 per 1,000, down from 22.6 in 2002.

When the subject is sex, teens often feel more comfortable talking with someone closer to their own age than with an adult. Last year, 275 high school mentors, under the supervision of adult facilitators, presented the PEAK curriculum to 1,800 North Idaho students.

As an adjunct to school health programs, the PEAK curriculum was initiated in 1996 to reduce the high teen pregnancy rates in North Idaho. Panhandle Health District saw a 43-percent decrease in teen pregnancy rates among girls 15-17 years of age from 1995 to 2002.

The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program works jointly with the Idaho Governor's Council on Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention to increase the number of teens choosing abstinence. The Governor's Council supports the PEAK program with a statewide media campaign ("Sex lasts a moment. Being a parent lasts your whole life"), funding and curriculum support.

For more information about teen pregnancy prevention or the PEAK program, contact Brittany Baeumel at PHD at 415-5143, the Idaho CareLine at 2-1-1 or online visit www.idahoteenpregnancy.com.