TAKES THE TOWN

Three Steps to Takes the Town

True Love Waits Takes the Town involves drawing many people together to raise the banner of sexual purity. It involves a joint effort from various facets of the community.

Use the following three-step strategy to begin taking your town today!

Step 1: Building a Coalition

• Start with a core group of like-minded people who will commit to working the strategy. One person will need to serve as the overall coordinator.
• Define the territory. In most cases this will be the town or county.
• Draw churches together. Look for church leaders who have been involved with True Love Waits. All church leaders need to be willing to work with Christians of other denominations.
• Use materials for Takes the Town to determine interest and expertise of community leaders, attitudes and behaviors of teens in the community, health issues related to teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in the town and resources available to promote abstinence.
• Invite a cross-section of people to begin a coalition.

Helpful Download: Download this sample letter you can modify and use to invite local community leaders to your next TLW event so they can see the difference True Love Waits can make in the lives of teenagers. Sample Invitation Letter (12kb PDF)

Step 2: Create a One-Year Plan

• As a coalition, set one-year, specific, challenging and yet reasonable goals.
• Consider a community kick-off event to raise the awareness that a community wide emphasis on abstinence is about to begin.
• Create a year-long calendar with activities that involve all the represented community groups.
• Coalition members take charge of the goals and strategies that are within their areas of expertise. (Ex. A family doctor distributes literature on the health benefits of abstinence before marriage to other private practice physicians for display in their waiting rooms.)
• Plan a celebration event as a culmination of the year-long abstinence emphasis. The event could include personal statements by students who have made pledges, statistics from health professionals regarding any measurable changes and a concert by a band that supports abstinence.

Helpful Download: Download this sample news release you can modify and use to alert local media to True Love Waits and your next TLW event. Sample News Release (16kb PDF)

Step 3: Continuing the Challenge

• Members of the coalition will want to continue to track measurable trends in health related to abstinence, reporting those findings to local media outlets.
• Seek opportunities to provide training for people in health care centers, schools, and churches on the benefits of a sexually pure life.
• Plan periodic events that uplift the benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage.

Find Out More!
Download ideas and information for starting Takes the Town in your community by downloading the Takes the Town Information Packet (117kb PDF).