Director/Seminar Trainer/Instructors -
The Focus On Abstinence seminar instructor (and trainer of
additional instructors) is Dr. Charles G. Cook, Founder and Director of Focus
Community, Inc., Lubbock, Texas that produces Focus On Abstinence Seminars. His wife, Tamara, serves with him as an instructor for
the Focus On Abstinence Seminars. They are
both dedicated Christians and keenly desire to serve people and glorify God through their
ministries. Dr. Cook speaks to educators, students,
parents, community organizations, singles, and churches nationally and internationally. Dr. Cook is a minister of the gospel, instructor at
Sunset International Bible Institute, Lubbock, Texas, missionary in two regions of the USA
in addition to his duties to Focus Community, Inc.
Focus On Abstinence Overview
The
purpose of Focus on Abstinence is to
target the growing need among communities in our nation for abstinence education among
young people. By working with schools,
community organizations, churches, parents and young people, attitudes can be changed, and
lives which might have been destroyed by unwanted pregnancies, abortion, drug abuse,
tobacco related illnesses, and sexually transmitted diseases will instead be happy and
productive lives. We take a broad view of what
abstinence should mean for our youth. It is
abstinence from all sexual activity before marriage, but it is also abstinence from other
harmful activities like drugs, alcohol, and tobacco.
The information presented in our seminars is designed to get this message across.
The problem is lack of education
about life-choices, especially in low-income neighborhoods and communities that have been
historically underserved by existing programs. Our
nation's urbanizing trends have made this group particularly vulnerable to the problems
associated with underage sex and substance abuse. Most
low-income groups do not have adequate access to education about life-choices confronting
young people. We believe that our young people
deserve to know the advantages of choosing abstinence in areas of substance abuse and
lifestyles. They deserve our support in making
the right decisions for their lives. It is the
lack of education about choosing abstinence that our program, Focus On Abstinence,
is designed to address. Our specific goal is
to target the growing need in these communities, especially with regards to the influx of
Hispanic peoples into the USA.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “Hispanic teens are anticipated to grow at a
rate far outpacing U.S. teen growth.” This
means that it is critical that the Hispanic teen pregnancy problem be addressed now. The teen pregnancy and birth rates for Latinas have
not decreased as much in recent years as have the overall US teen birth and pregnancy
rates, in fact, they are on the increase. Teen
pregnancies for Latinas is 69% higher than the national average – for Latinas, the
rate is 165 per 1,000 girls aged 15-19 and the overall US rates is 97 per 1,000 girls aged
15-19. They have the highest teen birth rate
of all major ethnic groups in the United States. (via National Campaign To Prevent Teen
Pregnancy, 2005)
We believe our service to be valuable because knowledge about choices can have a
tremendous impact on the lives of young people, especially those in low-come families who
are most impacted by this demographic shift. Some
of the school districts in the smaller towns are under tremendous financial pressure due
to the loss of students. They are very open to
programs such as ours, which serve their communities in ways they cannot at this time
afford. Conversely, the school districts in
the larger cities are experiencing the same need due to a marked increase in student
needs. Therefore, we are committed to
presenting our series of educational seminars in all these areas. By working with schools, community organizations,
churches, parents and young people, attitudes can be changed, and lives which might have
been destroyed by unwanted pregnancies, abortion, drug abuse, tobacco related illnesses,
and sexually transmitted diseases will instead be happy and productive lives. The information presented in our seminars is
designed to accomplish this.
Dr. Charles Cook
Email: focus3@suddenlink.net
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