“65 million Americans have an incurable STD…” Pencils scribble down the stat.

RETA team members Jeff and Joni recently taught sexual risk avoidance - a much longer way of saying abstinence - through our Healthy Sexual Boundaries Ed. (or HSBE) at Elkhart Memorial High School. HSBE is the preventative wing of RETA’s services. If we’re able to help youth think about where they want to be in 10-15 years and think through their sexual decisions and how those decisions impact their desired life outcomes, we’re better able to make the case for abstinence and help the students avoid the need for some of our services in the future.

At the end of the 90-minute interactive lesson, students developed their own boundaries to help them avoid sexual risks. Some students wrote that they would wait to have sex until they were married. Others were more specific with their boundaries - “I won’t have my boyfriend over when I know my parents won’t be home.” Having a clear, communicated boundary with accountability is the key to living them out and will help the students reach their preferred future outcomes - without STDs or unplanned pregnancies.

RETA is privileged to partner with local schools, supplementing their sex education, by teaching abstinence.