Women’s Leadership Initiative 
Mission: To ensure that youth have the knowledge and skills needed to become responsible adults.
Vision: To provide an environment in which children in Anderson County will become responsible adults who contribute to the betterment of the community.
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Nationally, one in 3 teens becomes pregnant by age 20, one quarter of teen parents have a second child before they turn 20, and teen childbearing costs taxpayers at least $9.1 billion a year
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Teen childbearing (ages 19 and younger) in S.C. cost taxpayers at least $156 million in 2004
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South Carolina ranks 33rd in the U.S. in teen pregnancies
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The most current epidemiological DHEC data reports that in 2006, Anderson County had 408 pregnancies among youth ages 10-19.
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According to a 2008 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the proportion of high school students in S.C. who had sex for the first time before age 13 was 9.5% compared to 7.1% nationally
How Women's Leadership is making an impact!
March 10, 2009 marked the 5 year anniversary of the implementation of the comprehensive evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program in Anderson County School District Three. Since 2004, Women's Leadership Initiative contributions have exceeded $225,000 -- funds strategically invested to prevent teen pregnancies in Anderson County. Before the partnership of the Women's Leadership Initiatitve with IMPACT! and School District Three, the District experienced an average of 10 pregnancies per year in 2001, 2002, and 2003. In years 2004, 2005, and 2006 pregnancies rose to an average of 16 per year. After the implementation of the program, only four pregnancies were reported in school year 2007-08 and three in 2008-09. Of the seven pregnancies reported in the past two years, only one student had completed the program. The success of the program has received national attention, not only by the United Way of America, but also in TIME Magazine.
The results of the program are staggering and the impact powerful. changing lives and creating opportunities for a better life for all by focusing on teen pregnancy prevention.
2009 Women’s Leadership Council
- Mary Nell Anthony
- Amy Chapman
- Patty Chapman
- Julie Collins, Chair
- Sandra Counts
- Wendy Gillespie
- Tricia Henderson
- Kathryn Manson
- Beverly McAdams
- Susan Miranda
- Angi Patrick
- Deborah Roegge
- Juana Slade
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