Girls Inc. Tackles Pregnancy : Focusing on Girls at Risk : Task Is Formidable, but Pregnancy Prevention Program, Which Includes Peer Counseling, Gets Results

“Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder” could be the motto at Girls Inc.--especially for the dozen young teens who on a recent Tuesday afternoon viewed an ultra-realistic slide presentation on sexually transmitted diseases.

Appropriate to the horror show that it was, hands flew up often to shield the eyes as slide after slide flashed onto the wall of the Costa Mesa facility. Two girls had to get up and rush outside for some air during one graphic--syphilitic warts that, because of their projection onto the wall, loomed above them the size of softballs.

“You don’t want to get diseases like this.”

The voice, addressed to a smirking member of the group, belongs to Jo Gottfried, who knows the obvious cannot be overstated when it comes to the subject at hand: teen sexuality. “This is how it really is. These are STDs. These are out there.”

As coordinator of family programs at Girls Inc. of Newport Mesa, Gottfried is marshaling some impressive weapons in the battle against adolescent pregnancy.

The task is formidable, and the costs of failure are high. According to one study, births to teen mothers cost U.S. taxpayers $21 billion each year. In Orange County in 1990, the last year for which data is available, 4,743 babies were born to teen-agers. The number of teen mothers rose 53% between 1986 and 1990 even though the number of 15-to-19-year-old girls in the county dipped slightly.

For this reason, the pregnancy-prevention programs at Girls Inc. have grown in three years from a small part of the budget to a third of the total program, said executive director Rita Redaelli.

The center, one of 300 affiliates of the national nonprofit group Girls Inc., has been in Costa Mesa since 1957 and was known as the Girls Club of America until 1990. Its $300,000 annual budget is funded by the United Way, membership fees, local service organizations, individual gifts and community-service grants.

Nationwide, the Girls Inc. programs get results. They were found in a recent three-year study to reduce teen sex by half among program participants and to increase the motivation for using of birth control when participants did engage in sex.

Gottfried, along with assistant Orleda Roa, works with many disadvantaged teens who, social workers say, use sex in a misguided attempt to get the affection and attention that have been denied them at home. Two of every three girls they work with at Girls Inc. have families with alcohol or drug problems, mental illness or tendencies toward violence.

The prevalence of such problems was illustrated at a recent introductory meeting in which a dozen junior high girls were simply stating their names, ages and something about themselves.

“Four of the girls broke out in tears over their family problems,” Gottfried said. “And this was just an orientation meeting. It wasn’t even emotionally charged.

“There’s so much unfinished business in their lives, so much pain. And people wonder why girls run to guys for love. This is not brain surgery here--the causes (of teen sex) are obvious. You can’t ‘just say no’ to a cute guy, especially if you have an emotional need.

“The girl says, ‘I need to be loved, and I’ll do anything to get that love.’ It leads to sex, to gangs, to marrying not the best person for you because you think you need to marry. Or to getting pregnant to keep the guy or to get the guy to love her. I’ve heard that one a lot.”

Girls get involved in the programs for a variety of reasons. Some are drawn to the social atmosphere, some are sent as punishment by their parents, some have the programs recommended by friends or school counselors. In the coming school year, Gottfried plans to make Girls Inc. a more recognized name by holding introductory workshops on local campuses. Dial-A-Ride will bring kids directly from schools to the Girls Inc. center.

One-fourth of Girls Inc. members are 11 to 14 years old, a category that counselors say is too young for many other teen centers.

“They’re making decisions about dating and sexuality at younger and younger ages,” Gottfried said, “and we’ve found if we don’t get in there (to educate them) early, we don’t get in at all. At 15 or 16 they’re so independent from adults that it’s difficult, in terms of my credibility and their time. I can’t compete with guys with cars.”

Of course, the problem of adolescent pregnancy is exacerbated by boys for whom sexual conquest is the only game in town. At Estancia High School in Costa Mesa, they’re known as “players.”

“They’re called that because they play around with you, do the ‘oochie’ and then drop you like a fly,” said Ana Orozco, 14, of Costa Mesa, who’s been attending Girls Inc. workshops for a year and who admits that boys are also subject to peer pressure to have sex.

“Players know how to work the girls,” she said. “They have different categories of girls. One (category) would be a girl who’s cute but she turns everybody down and only goes for a certain type of guy. Another is a girl that’s easy, another is the girl who’s shy and innocent. And they have a way to get each girl.

“If you won’t do anything with them they start talking about you. But some are so cute, though. You can’t say no to them like you say no to drugs.”

“They think we’re too dumb to make the right choices,” added Tonia Olshefski, 15, also of Costa Mesa. “They say you’re a bitch if you don’t put out. They can play with your mind easy.”

A peer-based educational effort is central to the anti-pregnancy programs at Girls Inc. For example, the slide show on sexually transmitted diseases was presented by 10 local high school students who work as “peer educators” for Planned Parenthood of Orange County.

A workshop will feature single teen mothers describing the experiences, both positive and negative, of raising a baby. The odds are against these mothers, Gottfried said, because 80% of single teens who raise a child never make it out of the poverty class.

“It’s important for the girls to be able to say no to a guy. But the reason why it’s important can’t come from adults,” she said. “We can put it out there, but they won’t buy it. I use girls to support one another. They need that element of peer support. And when it happens it’s powerful.”

Orozco agreed. “It’s harder when the kids are older to take advice. They get enough of this from their parents.”

In terms of trust and respect, however, Gottfried is a peer to many. The kids tease her good-naturedly about her permed hair, and she’s been known to participate in Silly String fights to break the tension of extended workshops.

What’s most complimentary, she said, is “when they ask me to sit down with their boyfriends, saying, ‘They ain’t gettin’ (the message).’ I consider this an honor. It’s like I’ve made it into this inner circle for them to confide in me.”

Boys are encouraged to attend many of the programs, but a strong gang presence in Costa Mesa inhibits some boys from coming if another group has already attended, Orozco said.

Since girls are increasingly using male friends as confidants, a coed overnight workshop is in the idea stage. Such extended sessions, counselors say, increase the intensity of the interaction, with participants asking questions that they wouldn’t in a two-hour workshop.

Any coed program takes a lot of planning, Gottfried said, adding that if she does do the overnighter she will handpick the boys and will also know all their parents. No one who is drug- or alcohol-addicted will be invited.

Three boys attended the recent slide presentation on sexually transmitted diseases. The show was part of Will Power/Won’t Power, an eight-week program for 11- to-14-year-olds designed to help them understand their feelings and develop the skills they will need to assert themselves.

Other programs that combat teen pregnancy are Growing Together, a monthlong workshop series designed to increase communication between parents and their daughters; and Taking Care of Business, in which girls 15 to 18 help one another with information and skills designed to avoid pregnancy and begin planning for college and careers.

Kids who don’t complete the programs are sometimes sources of particular frustration for the counselors. One 12-year-old girl, a favorite of the staff, recently dropped out and is now reportedly a member of a satanic cult. Another 15-year-old, whose ambition is to be a doctor, got pregnant but miscarried when the father beat her. She is now too embarrassed to return to Girls Inc., Gottfried said.

“Many of these girls have known sexuality only in ways that have been harmful,” she said. “Half of all rape occurs to teen-agers, and many of our girls have experienced date rape or know of kids who have. They’re desperate for information and for someone who’ll listen.”