T.A.P.S
In September 2008, Harvest of Hope Family Services Network, Inc. (HOH) was awarded a federal grant from the U.S. Family and Youth Service Bureau’s Community-Based Abstinence Education Program (CBAE). The grant was awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to Title XI, Section 1110 of the Social Security Act. The project is designed to provide community based abstinence-until-marriage education to 6,000 underserved adolescents in eight communities in three New Jersey counties. The program is called T.A.P.S. or Teens Abstaining and Positioning Self.
T.A.P.S. is a federally funded program that provides abstinence-centered education to youth ages 12-18. Our objectives are to create an environment that supports teens’ decisions to postpone sexual activity until marriage, to reduce the number of pregnancies and STD’s among teens, and to increase the number of youth that choose to remain abstinent until marriage. The Center for Disease Control data shows “that more than half of New Jersey’s high school students have had sexual intercourse with a substantial percent of males, having their first sexual experience before age 13." Our goal is to encourage our youth to wait.
