Prevention @ Center Point
Prevention Education programming support teens by providing weekly, ongoing services. Services focus on comprehensive prevention education within a classroom or peer-group environment in an effort to increase knowledge and skills. Our hope is to give teens the tools necessary to become healthy adults.
Smart Girls/Wise Guys
Smart Girls and Wise Guys are educational and support groups offered to middle and high schools in the Hall County and Gainesville City school systems. These groups meet weekly or bi-weekly during the school day on school premises, serving seven to ten participants at a time. Sessions include self-esteem building, healthy decision-making, and relationship skills. We also focus on developing character skills and helping teen participants recognize how their choices can determine their future. Through these sessions, young women and men are provided the skills needed to overcome negative peer pressure, the tools to make healthy life choices, and the esteem to view their future potential accurately. The participants are required to obtain parental permission prior to participating in the program.
Pregnant & Parenting Support & Education
Parenting teens and their children are at the greatest risk of entering Georgia’s child welfare system, and parenting teens are at the greatest risk of potentially abusing their children if left uneducated and unsupported. Adolescent parents are at an increased risk of experiencing maternal and infant health problems, isolation, poverty, lack of support systems and are at an increased risk of abusing their children. Our program is designed to support teen parents in a way that speaks to them, using evidence-based practices that have been proven effective. Participants of our program have graduated high school at a rate of over 90%—nearly 20 points higher than the local average. Groups meet weekly on site at local Hall county middle and high schools.
Health Education
This multi-session classroom-based program utilizes the Choosing the Best Journey or Love Notes curricula and is most often implemented in 9th Grade Health classes in Gainesville and Hall County schools. It is designed to encourage healthy and safe relationships and responsible decision making among teens. Classroom lessons empower young people to make safe and positive choices. Lessons that are covered include: Setting Goals, Future Planning, Making the Best Decisions, Avoiding Pregnancy, Avoiding STDs, Developing the Best Relationships, Overcoming Peer Pressure, and Being Assertive. This program is offered with parental consent only.
Baby Think It Over
Baby Think it Over is a 10-pound infant simulator designed to provide teens with the opportunity to address the challenges and realities of being a teen parent. This program is often implemented in Biology or Child Development classes at the 10th grade level or higher and is only implemented with school and parent permission. We currently have 10 “babies” available for loan. This exciting and innovative program is a favorite among students.