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Denmark-Olar Teen Life Center

The Denmark-Olar Teen Life Center also known as the School/ Community Sexual Risk Reduction Project for Teens provides assistance to the community by addressing adolescent issues in particularly teen pregnancy. The program began in 1982 as a collaborative effort between the University of South Carolina's School of Public Health and the local community. The Denmark-Olar Teen Life Center believes in the right of every person to have access to sexuality education. The center provides school based clinics to students enrolled in Denmark-Olar School District Two.

The staff at Denmark-Olar Teen Life Center stresses to the youth the importance of being more responsible for their sexual health. They conduct life skill education and in-school group sessions. The purpose of the Teen Life Center is to promote abstinence, reduce the number of unwanted/unplanned teen and pre-teen pregnancies, increase contraceptive use among sexually active teens, and encourage the establishment of healthy relationships among children and their parents. The center fulfills its obligation of informing the community through media campaigns in physician offices, businesses, churches, and billboards. To obtain its goals of reducing teen pregnancy in Bamberg County, the Teen Life Center offers the following:

  • Parenting Adolescents Wisely (PAW) – Self-paced, CD-ROM computer parenting program
  • Peer Educators – Heterogeneous group involved in designing school/community campaigns
  • Mother-Son, Mother- Daughter, Father-Son, Father- Daughter Conferences- Held to enhance the relationships between youth and their parents
  • Quarterly Newsletter – Distributed to middle and high school students in Bamberg County
  • Monthly Parenting Workshops

The center has been recognized for its effectiveness in the July 26, 2006 Wall Street Journal. Coretta Green Jamison, Teen Life Center Director and native of Bamberg County, became a part of the organization because she wanted to give back to the community. She wants the youth to understand if you make healthy decisions and set goals, you can be successful. She feels it is important to encourage the youth, ensure that they believe in themselves, and know that there are opportunities outside of Denmark.

For more information about the Denmark-Olar Teen Life Center, please call 803.793.2030.
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