Be Strong International

As a Miami-Dade County Public school teacher during the 1980s, Althea McMillan witnessed promising youth drop out of school because of premature pregnancies. Herself a former 15-year-old pregnant dropout, she was the product of a high-crime, economically-blighted Miami neighborhood. Like her, she knew that her students from similar neighborhoods faced chances of not graduating high school, going to college or merely escaping the destructive cycles that plagued their families and communities. The prospect of pregnancy, in fact, drastically increased when these youth became involved in early risky behaviors as a result of trauma in broken families. Many of her students came from single parent homes that lacked the resources, knowledge and skills to break these generational patterns. As a result, McMillan became committed to educating youth and parents on fostering and maintaining themselves emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Her goal was to end the cycle of broken individuals and family relationships. In 1992, she founded Abstinence Between Strong Teens, which is now Be Strong International, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. She grew the organization almost single-handedly until the community started to take notice of its impact.