about the Edge

The EDGE Program was established by Women's Care Center as a educational program to teach young people the benefits of waiting until marriage to have sex. The program initially began in 1993 to equip the youth in Rhea County with information so they would not find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy situation. It has grown into a program that not only encourages abstinence-until-marriage, but also helps youth make smart decisions in all aspects of life to help them achieve a healthy, successful future.

The Edge continues to work closely with school districts, community agencies, churches and organizations throughout Rhea and surrounding counties in Southeast Tennessee, providing youth development services to over 28,000 young people. In addition to building healthy teens we offer programs to parents and teachers to help them stay current on youth issues. We want to strengthen our community and their ability to build self-confident teens, communicate abstinence and influence youth to make healthy decisions.

The mission of the Edge is to equip adolescents with the knowledge and support to abstain from risky behaviors including sexual activity. We strive to accomplish this mission in the following way:

1. Engage youth through dynamic, appealing presentations that are informative, relevant, and medically accurate.
2. Direct youth towards healthy goal setting and a vision for a successful future.
3. Grow youth as they develop critical thinking skills and learn to analyze and make choices consistent with good health, enhanced self-esteem and productive lives.
4. Excellence is the ultimate outcome. Youth will learn resiliency to overcome past failures, develop healthy self-worth and achieve Excellence in life!