Share This Campaign:
Our History
The Coalition for Positive Sexuality (CPS) is a grassroots volunteer group formed in 1992 by high school and college students, teachers, and activists in Chicago. The AIDS epidemic, queer-bashing, and concerns about teen pregnancy sparked our desire to provide teens with accurate, positive, empowering sexuality and safe-sex information. We worked with teenagers to create a sex education booklet that covered birth control, STDs, safe-sex practices, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy prevention, abortion rights, and sexual identity without preaching abstinence or denying sexual pleasure. We wanted to contribute to a teen peer culture that would eventually make sexual ignorance unacceptable.
Our Impact
CPS started distributing our self-published sex education booklet, Just Say Yes, to Chicago public high school students by standing in front of their schools at 7am with a box of booklets and hundreds of latex condoms. This action forced the schools, and Chicago, to readdress the needs of their teenaged students and the deficiencies in the "Family Life" Curriculum being offered. In 1995 CPS launched our website, www.positive.org, making Just Say Yes available to teens around the world. The site includes a forum for teens to ask questions and provide peer-education in response. CPS doesnt just want to provide teens with information, we want to inspire teens to educate themselves and each other, feel confident in their sexual choices, and demand comprehensive sex education in their schools. At present, CPS has distributed over 50,000 Just Say Yes booklets and 6,000 Girl Germs posters. Our website averages 70,000 hits a day (yes, a day) from 7,000 visitors.
What We Need & What You Get
The CPS website (http://www.positive.org) is in desperate need of redesign. The factual information is continuously updated to reflect changes in medicine, diagnosis, new treatments, and changing legislation concerning teens and access to health care. However, the site needs to be redesigned for easier access to the most sought after information (could I be pregnant? is the most common question visitors ask) and to look hip and cool! Gotta stay current and cutting-edge on the internet!
Your donation enables CPS to hire a young, aspiring web designer to work as a summer intern with our all-volunteer staff on updating the look of our popular website. We plan to organize a focus group of teens and young college students to review the existing website and provide feedback on what works and what needs changed. A contemporary looking website is vital to our teen-appeal, and a user-friendly interface makes it easier for users to find the information they need.
In return for your donation, CPS sends you a copy of our Just Say Yes booklet. For larger donations you receive a Girl Germs poster, empowering teen girls to take control of their sexuality and demand respect.
Other Ways You Can Help
Encourage the schools in your community to provide comprehensive sex education that empowers teens to make informed decisions about their sexual health. Spread the word about the CPS website, Just Say Yes booklets, and this campaign to raise funds. If you're a well-informed young person that want's to help teens make smart sexual health decisions, log onto our "Let's Talk" forum and reply to some of their questions! If you know of some really well-designed websites (no matter what the subject matter), send us a link so we can be inspired (positive[at]positive.org).
Team on This Campaign:
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Jeanette MayFounding Member
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Kenyette Barnes-HiggsCPS Member
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Patrick WojahnCPS Member
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Karen Beardslee Kwasny
CPS Member
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Andrea CreelCPS Member
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Samantha Wright
CPS Member