How we started...
It began at St. Cloud Crisis Pregnancy Center with an off-hand comment by a client. A stunning comment that counseling staff members were to hear again and again.
“Nobody has ever told me before that it’s OK to say no to sex"
At first we didn’t believe it.
“Surely their parents must be telling kids to save sex for marriage,” we said. Then we had a 14-year-old client who was disappointed because her pregnancy test was negative. The saddest part of her story is that her mother was also disappointed.
“Surely churches are telling teens to wait,” we said. But a lot of parishioners apparently don’t think that sex is an appropriate topic to talk about in church.
“At least they’re getting the message at school,” we said. But a lot of schools are telling students, “Hey, kids, we know that abstinence is probably a good way to go. But since most of you aren’t going to be able to pull this off, here’s a condom, and here’s how to use it.”
It was at this point that CPC Director Julie Spore said, “It’s time for us to become more assertive about prevention.” She appointed a task force, and Judy Pauly was hired in 1997 to launch and direct the program.
She began with a handful of public and private schools, a few CCD, classes and a smattering church youth groups. Each time she shared her gripping personal story of how she became pregnant at 15, aborted her baby, then paid enormous consequences for her unhealthy choices.
Gradually Judy built a team of magnetic young men and women who joined her. And as word got around, schools and churches from all over central Minnesota began calling with requests for the A-Team.
After 5 ½ years, Judy Pauly resigned to continue her education, and the Abstinence Board hired Jessi Brinkman to direct the program. At the same time as the abstinence program was growing astronomically, the CPC (renamed Pregnancy Resource Center) expanded into the medical field, adding testing for sexually transmitted diseases and ultrasound services to its list of offerings.
In order to allow each segment of the organization to focus on what it does best, the decision was made on September 19, 2002, to incorporate the abstinence program as a separate entity, known as Freedom Advocates, Inc. Freedom Advocates now reaches thousands of students in scores of schools and churches with a practical message of hope and help.