Late yesterday afternoon, Senator Bright shocked the South Carolina Senate by proposing an amendment to the budget that removed rights to comprehensive healthcare services for victims of rape and incest.

Luckily, 18 Senators stopped this harmful amendment.

Please thank these 18 Senators and encourage them to continue to stand up for victims’ rights.

We believe this issue will come up again – show you support victims’ rights to healthcare by sending your email now.

Send a message to those Senators who stood up for victims and thank them for their efforts

Our first encounter with a photo-a-day challenge has been through the Australian blogger FatMumSlim (@fatmumslim). We’ve been following this wonderful blog (written by a young mom named Chantelle) for a few months, and have continued to be enthused.

Each month, FatMumSlim provides a photo sharing challenge that asks her followers to be inspired by the items around them. She asks that followers share their photos each day, and we found out about this fun activity through one of her dedicated followers.

Cathy Monetti (@cathymonetti) is a strong Tell Them advocate and partner at Riggs Partners, the most creative and talented Public Relations firm in the world (at least Tell Them Staff thinks so). Based in Columbia, SC, Cathy is an avid Instagram user- in fact, to quote one of Cathy’s recent blog posts, “I have a bit of an obsession with Instagram.”

According to Cathy, “this free little download has changed everything about the way I look at the world around me. Partly because it’s just fun to keep an eye out for an interesting something that might make a swell photo. But also because I am wildly inspired by the images that are delivered to me, right there in my Instagram feed. There is something fascinating about seeing ordinary, daily life transformed into magical crops, viewed through someone else’s life lens.”

Cathy has been participating in a “Photo-A-Day Challenge” each month, and as one of her many followers, the Tell Them team couldn’t help but be pulled in.

These two ladies have inspired Tell Them to use photo-sharing as a way to encourage awareness and advocacy. Thank you for the fantastic idea!

Since this bipartisan legislation first passed in 1994, it’s been reauthorized twice without a hitch. And it’s been tremendously successful in helping to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Send an email urging your Senators to support the Violence Against Women Act.

Since this law passed, it has helped reduce the annual rate of domestic violence by an astounding 53 percent. The rate of women killed by an intimate partner has dropped 34 percent. Its programs, including violence prevention programs, shelters and rape crisis centers, and funding for the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes have made a world of difference in giving victims of violence a safe place to turn.

It has without a doubt saved thousands of lives.

Send an email urging your Senators to support the Violence Against Women Act.

Download the application here

This event will bring together people from across the state to celebrate the power of women. According to Unitewomen.org, this is the first time in American history that a simultaneous rally will be happenings in all 50 states!

Join us on Saturday, April 28th, from 11am-1pm at the South Carolina Statehouse

By Brittany Pack, member of the SWARM youth council and Senior at Converse College

Recently, I went to speak with my representative about reproductive health education, and I was very disappointed with his response.  At first it seemed promising. I told him how abstinence-only education fails communities, gave him a packet of cited information that backed everything I was saying, and explained to him that just because he supports people being abstinent until marriage does not mean that he should be to force-feeding it to everyone. 

He asked if he could ask me a question…  I was excited, because I thought he was going to attempt to have an educated conversation with me.  I started answering some of his questions and it quickly became clear that we were not on the same page.  He told me that he was glad I was so passionate about a cause; however, I picked the wrong cause to be passionate about.

He said abstinence was the only way to prevent teen pregnancy and STIs. Yes, if everyone in the entire world practiced abstinence then the rates would be lower, but that is simply impossible. He asked me what the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancy.  He said abstinence. 

I do not agree, sir.  South Carolina as a state has attempted abstinence-only since for decades, but it yet to work!  Crazy can be defined as attempting to do something over and over again and failing, but continuing to do the same thing expecting a different result.  You know it’s not going to work, but you continue to attempt it without changing anything.  Sirs, this is a message of all South Carolinian legislators, to continue to teach abstinence-only sex education is crazy.  We’ve tried over and over again, year after year, for the past three decades, and we’re getting the same results— uneducated people getting pregnant outside the “fortified walls of marriage” or marriage couples that have a child or three and then get divorced.  Poorly educated people cannot make healthy choices without knowing how to be healthy.  Ignoring an entire biological system simply won’t stop young people from getting pregnant.  You give them some scientific knowledge, teach them a thing or two about self-respect, and teach them to “Draw the Line and Respect the Line,” and you will see our $200,000,000 a year loss to teen pregnancy do down. 

Brittany meeting with Representative Chumley during Bee Day 2012

I think abstinence is a wonderful thing.  It’s something I shared with the legislator that I practice, but it is a personal choice. I tried to explain to the representative that educating the youth with a comprehensive education is better than leaving out all the key parts of information.  When we teach history, we don’t leave out the parts about one man killing another because we’re afraid that the children are going to go out into the hall and start shooting up the place.  We don’t leave out information about how racism used to be, and arguably still is, a big problem in the State cause we’re afraid they youth are going to start race riots.  We educate them.  We encourage discovery amongst themselves so that they can see where they have the option to make the mistakes of the past generations, but they have been given the wonderful tool of knowledge and can therefore protect themselves and their community from such assaults happening again.  Depriving the youth information about a topic that is life-changing, no strike that, life-creating is irresponsible and as has been seen in our state for pretty much its entire history.  If South Carolina is going to ever leave the list of the top states with high pregnancy rates, high STI/HIV rates, high poverty, high crime, high dropout rates, high levels of families on assisted income, etcetera, we’ve got to let go of some of our flawed misconceptions.  We have to learn a thing or two from our flawed past.  We can’t attempt to change the future by only trying things from the past that haven’t failed.  That would be crazy.

Humans are predictably unpredictable.  If you can plan for the unpredictability, say by educating about contraceptives, you give people the tools they need to survive their most unpredictable years of their lives.

By Sarah DuRussel-Weston, a member of the SWARM Youth Council for Policy Change and graduate student at the University of South Carolina

I’m not sure if you’ve heard the buzz about bees at USC… (Sorry, I just CANNOT ignore a pun when I see one!). Students With A Responsible Message (S.W.A.R.M) have established a presence on campus, and we’ve been awfully busy making a name for ourselves. Since we began meeting in January of 2012, we’ve had 7 meetings already, and we will have 3 more before the semester is through.

As mentioned in a previous blog, we had a Film Screening where students from all sorts of majors and walks of life came to watch “Let’s Talk About Sex.”  SWARM USC met up with the rest of the SWARM Council at Bee Day where we talked to our legislators about the common sense about teaching Comprehensive Sex Education- which we commanded the attention of senators and representatives. We recently met up at Walk-A-Mile In Her Shoes which rose awareness for Sexual Assault and Rape Prevention. We represented the necessity for Comprehensive Sex Education in South Carolina Public Schools at Project Condom USC. We participated and helped out our council members from Clemson and Converse at Project Condom Upstate. The list goes on and on. I’m telling you: this campus organization is already getting a life of its own. 

The officials have been selected for next (though we’ll let them introduce themselves in a future blog.). The Buzz is growing. Students at USC are joining the conversation to only fund Comprehensive Sex Education in South Carolina with the 11,000+ Tell Them members and the other SWARM groups sprouting out all across the state.

We may have a road ahead of us to complete this necessary milestone in South Carolina, but we’re not backing down. Make note of SWARM. You’re going to be seeing a lot more of us.  We’ve only gotten started.”

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION HERE

Council Goals:

1. 1. Raise awareness among South Carolina youth about the need for STI and pregnancy prevention efforts for themselves and other young people.
2. 2. Advocate improving sex education policies that effect students in South Carolina and other policy priorities.
3. 3. Empower other youth to get involved in their communities.
4.   

What can YOU expect?

• • $100 per month stipend
• • Meet, work with, and learn from amazing young leaders across the state and country
• • Gain information and skills that you will be able to capitalize on throughout your academic and future careers.
• • Collaborate and make connections with Tell Them and Advocates for Youth staff who care about these issues as much as you do.
• • Share your experience and perspective.
• • Hard work, excitement, and fun… all while making a difference!
• • The opportunity to travel, and attend trainings across the state and country
•   

Who can Apply?

Anyone meeting the following qualifications is encouraged to apply for S.W.A.R.M.

1. 1. Be currently enrolled in a South Carolina college and between the ages of 18-24.
2. 2. Be able to commit to the S.W.A.R.M. Council for a minimum of one school year.
3. 3. Participate in bi-monthly conference calls
4. 4. Complete presentations, events, and write personalized blogs
5. 5. Participate in activities to continue building a strong base of advocates in the community and on campus.
6.   

Interested?

Please contact us with any questions. Then fill out the application and email, fax, or mail the application back to Tell Them by May 10, 2012. We will conduct interviews for selected candidates. Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.

Email: tallen@newmorningfoundation.org
Phone: (803) 929-0088       
Fax: (803) 929-0089

By Leigh Ann Black, a member of the SWARM Youth Council for Policy Change and reigning Ms. Claflin

About two weeks ago Tell Them volunteers, members, and advocates traveled to the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, to lobby members of the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate and urged them to support any and all legislation that expands access to reproductive health information and services.  We also presented each member that we met with a copy of the “Tell Them Bill of Rights.”

I met with Senator John W. Matthew Jr. and Representative Jerry N. Govan who both represented Orangeburg County. Meeting with these two men was a great experience and they both paid a great amount of attention for the short time that I spoke with them, and they made me feel that my voice really mattered. After all, I was speaking not just for myself but for all South Carolinians. These are experiences that I will forever take pride in.  Knowing that I helped to make other voices heard has been a humbling experience.

This was my second time participating in Bee Day. As I approached the steps to the State House, I realized why this was so important to me. Every day, I watch the news and receive updates on my cell phone letting me know exactly how the men who hold positions in Washington DC feel about women. Every day, I become more agitated with the headlines, with governors and with the people who sit on TV and say that “women don’t need contraception” or “Abstinence-only” methods are the only methods that work (NOT TRUE!!!). Who are these people pandering to? I’m a woman and we need contraception, and abstinence-only education leaves young people vulnerable due to ignorance. I’m tired of my policy makers not representing me or my peers. They aren’t representing what’s scientifically proven to be healthiest for young people.

Advocates for Abstinence-only education programs believe that teaching young people about their sexuality is like giving them a loaded gun. The truth of the matter is they are already locked and loaded naturally. (You know, the entire biological system called the reproductive system.)  It’s the only system we expect to be non-functional until a non-tangible concept created by man called marriage has been fulfilled. These ticking time bombs have been exploding in our state for years while Abstinence-only programs reign as king in the South. Teen pregnancy, STIs, and HIV continue to spread due to the direct refusal to disseminate information that would stifle these obstacles to self-efficacy. I speak out; I write letters; I talk to my peers about how flawed our state and the other states around us are for not only continuing Abstinence-only sex education for the youth but also how they are making it more and more difficult to provide accurate information to the youth about things that are completely safe and legal for them to use.

There are some people who make things happen. There are some who watch things happen.  And, there are others who wonder what has happened.  I know which category I fall into…where do you fall?  Let me encourage you to read up on the facts.  You might want to compare poverty levels of states in the South with that of the North and then take a look at their sex education policies.  You’ll find Ab-only states are much more likely to suffer from poor economies, lower high school and higher education completion rates, and higher rates of crime.  Compare the US as a whole which has a relatively high usage of contraception rates among adults to countries in Africa or Asia that don’t, and look at their quality of life.  There is no argument of these correlations.

Please be proactive against your sexual health rights being chipped away at.  Stay informed. Every time you take action on one of Tell Them’s Action Alerts, you make a difference. It puts your legislators in their place—the place you elected them to represent you and responsibility.

This fantastic event is held annually by Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands “ask men literally to walk one mile in women’s high-heeled shoes to rally the community to fight against sexual violence.” The goal is to bring awareness to the issues surrounding sexual violence, and to show that this is not a “woman’s” problem. Sexual assault hurts both men and women – and our community as a whole.

The services STSM provides are vital to our community. Teens with a history of sexual abuse are likely to rarely use birth control. Studies indicate that a woman who has experienced sexual violence has an increased risk of HIV and STI transmission, chronic health problems, premature birth and low birth weight. 2 out of 3 mothers who experience domestic violence at the hands of their partners experienced birth control sabotaged by a partner. Among women who are physically abused during their pregnancy, 70% had not intended on becoming pregnant.

This will be Tell Them’s 3rd year participating and we are more excited than ever. We have been outdone by other groups in the past for their creative footwear and team spirit – not this year! We have gathered advocates from across the Midlands to join us in our walk – men, women, and maybe event pets! We’ll be proudly wearing our Tell Them and SWARM t-shirts to show our support of preventing sexual assaults, and particularly, Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands.

Join Team Tell Them as we walk a mile in their shoes. The event begins at the Columbia Convention Center at 6pm Thursday, April 12. This year USC’s Cocky will be walking with us and the Benedict College’s Drum Line will be leading the procession! There will be face painting done by a professional clown, an animal balloon twister and a juggler on site! Bring the whole family for this fun filled event! Don’t miss it!