Graduate First Program

At A Step Ahead, we value the quality of life of young women all across the world. We want women to be able to reach their full potential without any setbacks of an unplanned pregnancy. We think that women deserve the opportunity to have access to effective and long-acting birth control, even if they can’t afford it or don’t have insurance. In today’s world, having a successful future is significantly correlated with getting a college degree, and the statistics are staggering when we look at dropouts due to unplanned pregnancy. So, here is what we are doing.
The Graduate First Program is a program designed to educate, empower, and support young women in college. Here are some staggering statistics on college pregnancy:

• 10% of women who drop out of community college give unplanned pregnancy as their reason for leaving.
  
• 48% of community college students have either been pregnant or gotten someone pregnant.
  
• 1 in 5 sexually active teenagers who are taking the pill will become pregnant within a year.
  
• If a woman finishes high school, waits until she is 21 and married to have children, and maintains a full-time job, there is only a 2% chance that she will live in poverty.
  

Our goal is to educate young women, high school and college-aged, to help shift some of these wild statistics in the direction of women having more opportunities. Without proper education on topics of abstinence and the power of long-acting reversible contraceptives, young women may never be aware of the damage that an unplanned pregnancy can do to her life or what her options even are to keep her from becoming another statistic. 
We know that stepping up and speaking out can change these statistics for the better. That is why we offer free long-acting reversible contraceptives to women who are not financially capable of getting it themselves. These methods include IUDs and implants. With these methods, women don’t have to remember to manage their birth control daily, and this leads to much lower rates of college pregnancy. Many unplanned pregnancies in women who are on birth control happen because they simply forget to take their pill or change their patch. 
If you are interested in implementing this program at your school or university, please contact us. We would love to give you more information and provide your students with the resources they need to be responsible and successful.