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HISTORY OF WISE GUYS |
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Throughout the 1980's, as in many communities across the country, Guilford County (North Carolina) had a growing teen pregnancy rate. The programs in place to address that issue had a common target audience - females. These programs were respected and applauded by the community for their good intentions and efforts in preventing adolescent pregnancies; however, pregnancy rates continued to rise steadily throughout the decade. Local service providers formed an Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition to identify gaps in services, and the major gap identified was that there were no ongoing efforts aimed at males. There was some thought - best summed up as 'Boys will be boys' - that teen males would not be interested in participating in such programs, the Family Life Council of Greater Greensboro volunteered to undertake the task of designing and implementing a pilot program for males. The first Wise Guys program was offered on a volunteer basis to males at a Greensboro Boys and Girls Club in the summer of 1990. The most encouraging thing about that initial program was the response of the young males themselves - attendance grew over the summer. Although the program has evolved considerably since that first effort, one initial finding has remained consistent: when given a chance to explore manhood and sexual decision-making in a safe and respectful environment, teen males are very interested. Initial funding came in the form of a five-year grant from the NC Department of Health and Human Services, and has grown and diversified since that time. By 1996, Wise Guys' thorough instructor's curriculum and history of positive evaluation data began to attract the attention of national organizations involved in teen pregnancy prevention, and training for professionals interested in implementing the program in their own communities became a regularly offered program component. Now on numerous Best and Approved Practice Model lists, Wise Guys is offered in diverse settings to males in communities across the country. |
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