Access to healthcare is one thing, but what happens when you can’t even get to the store??

Many college students are bombarded with many different responsibilities on campus such as constantly making superior grades, maintaining leadership positions, and surviving on a college student’s simple lack of financial means. It is often spoken for students not to work while in college, however many students spend precious study time working tiring jobs, because they have to purchase applications, books, rent, tuition, food, etc.

So, how do we access the things we need at an affordable price and within a reasonable amount of time?   Yes, a school nurse is available to students, but life on a private school campus has its limitations.  We cannot be given condoms or any other form of contraception by school staff members.  Emergency Contraception is therefore completely out of the question. 

There are local pharmacies that some students have access to, but for students like me driving is impossible and walking is dangerous.  We need contraceptives on campus.  Students need a safe and reliable place to obtain preventative and emergency contraceptives.  If I ever need either, I’d have no way to get it!! There is a timeframe of 72 hours for optimal use of emergency contraception.  I do not own a car, the local bus system does not come to my school, and there’s no way I’m walking- at least not without someone walking with me.  I still have classes, school work, and an overflowing list of responsibilities I have to complete, or I jeopardized my standing in school and my extracurricular activities.  Obtaining contraceptives should not be difficult.  I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my responsibilities to go long distances just to take care of my basic needs. 

Limited access to contraceptives by policies specifically restricting distributions has placed students in burdensome and hazardous for situations.  I attend a school that cares too much for its students to continue to enforce such senseless regulations.  This is something we need to change together (students, staff, and clergy) so that no student in the future is put in the reckless situation of not having unadulterated access to contraceptives.

Whoever said there was only one way to avoid sexually transmitted diseases??? A game of conventional dodge ball allowed me to teach college students about STDs, contraceptives, and the affects access to birth control can have on a population.

Oversized fishing nets and toy shields were used to represent contraceptives, and the balls represented various sexually transmitted infections. The teams of course threw the balls at each other…, but the teammates that carried protection were able to avoid being hit.  If students didn’t hold nets to catch the balls or shields to block them, they were left vulnerable.

We discussed a concept that was fairly new to me: “Access to Contraceptives.”  We laid out the parameters of the dodge ball playing area.  We set up about a dozen shields and nets in clusters to represent the locations that provide contraceptives and the limited access to them.  That meant that only players that started the game off closest to the piles were capable of accessing the hypothetical contraceptives.  Like the limited supply of shields and nets provided during the game, actual contraceptive access is limited to proximity and availability.  The next game we played we removed two of the piles.  This represented the reduction of access outside of business hours.

Contraceptive access is an ongoing issue that has to be dealt with, but it will not happen overnight.  Contraceptives are more readily available in areas where there are high densities of people.  We have to figure a way out to make them more accessible to rural areas.  We have to make sure that pharmacists can’t deny the sale of contraceptives to people who wish to buy them- which they can and do do! 

The lack of access to healthcare and scientifically accurate information is a prime reason many are deprived of accurate information.  We have to find more ways to reach all South Carolinians, as well as continue to increase involvement and education in the urban areas.

For Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. founder’s week we collaborated with Tell Them and SWARM to conduct a sexual health awareness game to further educate college students of the importance of access and education on sexual health issues. Pretty much all of the students proved interested and even signed up to receive notifications and help with upcoming events.

This high energy and impact game allowed students to learn and work up a sweat. We had a great time, and I definitely plan to organize this game again!

Students will be able to schedule their work for SWARM around their personal and educational schedules.  Listed on the application are required meetings that every council member must attend.

Council members should anticipate at least 2 hours per week, but if the council member sets large goals, many more hours could be necessary.

In the scheme of things — considering American taxpayers’ preoccupation with the economy, war, a presidential election, and various other distractions — it’s unlikely that a lot of attention will be paid to one Utah family’s personal prosperity over the last twelve years thanks in part to their relationship with Heritage Community Services, Inc. a family-owned abstinence-only-until-marriage business  headquartered near Charleston, South Carolina.  Yet the stories of the savvy entrepreneurs who seized the opportunity to get-rich-quick provided by the rise of an abstinence-only-until-marriage industry continue to fascinate those of us who work in reproductive/sexual health. So meet Stan and Maryanne Weed….

When the Weeds filed the 1998 federal tax return for the Institute for Research & Evaluation, the nonprofit business they had created ten years earlier, they reported net assets of $2,086. The Institute operated out of the Weeds’ three-bedroom home at 6068 S. Jordan Canal Road in Taylorsville, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City and a stone’s throw from Taylorsville’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

By 2000, according to their IRS Form 990, they had established a relationship with Focus On The Family, a prominent Christian-right activist organization and an influential proponent of social conservative policy.  That same year, their program service revenues jumped to $254,826 and Stan and Maryanne Weed were paid $153,850. Around the same time, Heritage Community Services hired Stan Weed to document the effectiveness of their own abstinence-only-until-marriage curriculum. According to IRS 990 filings, Heritage paid the Institute a lot of money over a series of years.

Fast forward to 2010, when the Institute for Research & Evaluation reported net assets of $1,067,640. What happened  between 1998 and 2010 to grow their assets by over $1 million is well documented on the Institute’s IRS 990 filings, which are available via Guidestar, www.guidestar.com and other public resources. The short story is that, as more and more federal and state funds — (that is to say, your and my tax dollars) — have been directed toward abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, Stan Weed has built a lucrative business out of his home by being the go-to- guy to “prove” that your homegrown abstinence-only-until-marriage programs work. If you are an abstinence-only vendor, attempting to convince your state government that you deserve another big grant, you absolutely love Stan Weed. His evaluations read like scholarly articles  —  (he earned a PhD at the University of Washington in 1978) — and so one must be willing to lift the veil to understand not only the shared ideologies between Dr. Weed and his customers, but also the symbiotic economic relationships (loads of revenue for both parties).

Why do we care? For starters, Heritage Community Services, Inc. is an aggressive organization that uses evaluations such as the above, as well as other means, to gain entry into South Carolina schools.  The more schools, the more potential revenue. The Charleston school district’s Health Advisory Committee, for example, is barely functional at this writing, due to a relentless campaign to undermine high school-level reproductive health instruction based upon evaluated, medically accurate age-appropriate curricula recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, as adults argue, point fingers and value greed over young peoples’ health, teens in Charleston’s high schools and high schools across the state continue to get pregnant.

If each side would agree to lay down their swords in the best interest of the state’s young people, the greater good, then perhaps we could agree to teach abstinence through middle school, but then teach science-based, comprehensive education in Grades 9-12, the time when more than half of our teens report becoming sexually active. Heritage Community Services and other abstinence-only-until-marriage vendors could maintain their revenue streams, however the quid pro quo would be that high school students finally get a consistently high-quality learning opportunity:  They could actually be taught about birth control and family planning. They would actually know how to prevent pregnancies.

Is this too much to hope for?

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!

We believe that one of the best ways to combat teen pregnancy rates is to teach and encourage healthy relationships to young people. In this spirit of spring and new beginnings, we have created a fun activity to encourage ongoing discussions of healthy relationships and what they mean to each of us.

Welcome to our Healthy Relationships May Photo-A-Day Challenge.

Use your camera phone (or camera) and take a photo every day using the above list to inspire you. Each item on the list corresponds to the day of the month. For example, on May 1st, the word is “reflection” so you could take a photo of yourself in a mirror or a window, or a photo of someone else “reflecting” on something. There are no rules – just let yourself be inspired.

Once you have taken your photo, please share it with us! Make sure you attach #TTMayPhoto to your posts so we can all see them!

• - INSTAGRAM: Upload your photo to Instagram, add a filter and put #TTMayPhoto in the caption so others can see your photos {share to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr etc from Instagram if you like}
• - FACEBOOK: Create an album titled something like, May Photo Challenge, and make the album public, then upload your photos. It’s a good idea to upload the list too so you can refer to it and others can see what you’re doing. You can also share your photos on the Tell Them Facebook page or tag Tell Them in your posted.
• - TWITTER: Remembering you 140 character limit (139 once you add the hashtag), describe your inspiration and tweet out your photo. Remember to add the hashtag #TTMayPhoto so others can see your photos
• - PINTEREST: Upload your photos to a board, and use the hashtag #TTMayPhoto so that others can search for them.
• - BLOGS & TUMBLR: Upload your photos to your blog or Tumblr and share with the world.
• - EMAIL: Send your photos to info@tellthemsc.org and we’ll post them on our sites.

You can share the links to where ever you’re sharing the photos in the comments below if you like.

Happy photo-taking! We’re excited to see how you inspire healthy relatonships in your daily life.

By Emily Rogers, a member of the SWARM Youth Council and student at the College of Charleston

My liberal (arts) college allows us to distribute condoms out in the open in the center of campus or anywhere really. But, there’s finesse to how to do give them away. In a school of 10,000 undergraduates you’d think they’d get picked up by the handful regardless of the situation. But I’ve learned it’s not always so easy.  Why don’t some college students take FREE condoms!?

Shame. Embarrassment. Apathy. Misinformation. All of the above?

I’ve gone out a few times to hand condoms out somewhere where I’ve set up a table.  I’ve even dressed up and in costumes to make people less weary.  But some students walk past me without making eye contact.  I’ve been told: “my girlfriend is on the pill, so we don’t have to worry,” and some tell me their boyfriends take care of that.

My response to those students and all young people…. there is no shame in safe sex, it never hurts to be doubly careful, and ladies take your health in your own hands! Carry condoms– especially if they’re free.

But a little advice I do have is to be bold while handing condoms out.  The night I wore a kitty costume was a pretty big success.  The other time when I went to the Colbert Rally (Yeah, that was here.) I got a complete stranger to hold a huge foam board with the phrase “FREE CONDOMS” on one side and “SC NEEDS REAL SEX-ED” on the other.  People flocked to me.  I gave out 500+ condoms in just a matter of an hour or two.  Ha. As the band walked by about half of them came over and snagged a couple.

So, it’s good to have them readily available in your living space where your guests can just take one or two, but if you make it a “BIG TO-DO,” it’ll take on a life of its own.  You’ll be out of stock before you can say: “Great American Condom Campaign!!!”

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.”