LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. -- Loudon County is experiencing serious problems with teen pregnancy rates, and now officials are banding together to find ways to solve the problem.

There are more than 90 counties in Tennessee, and Loudon County ranks third.

School officials are working with a Knoxville teen crisis prevention organization in the hopes those numbers will change.

Lenoir City High School health coordinator Mary Harding says, “I would say on the average we had probably ten or twelve that were pregnant out of a student population of 1,200."

Lenoir City Schools know they have a problem with teen pregnancies and those numbers don't include Loudon County Schools. The county ranks third in the state with teen pregnancy, and they've now formed a task force to deal with it.

Harding says, "We started attending other teen pregnancy task force meetings in the area. Monroe county and Knox county."

That's when they ran into Knoxville's Hope Resource Center.

The center’s director, Scott Hughes says, "We want to be there to really minister love to these folks who are going through such a hard time"

Hughes says they're already refurbishing a building on Kingston Street in Lenoir City to begin their ministry there of counseling those teens who have gotten pregnant.

Hughes says, "Be an advocate not only for the unborn child but be an advocate for them as young moms and dads."

With such a high teen pregnancy rate, why does Loudon County have such a high rate compared to even the next door counties?

Hughes says, "It's not one we've really been able to put our finger on. Part of it may be to do with there's not a lot of services in that area."

Hughes hopes that will change with their arrival on Sept. 15 when their new facility opens, but Hughes feels the biggest change will come from what they do that's not at their new facility.

Hughes says, "Do a lot of sexual abstinence education in the schools so we have a huge prevention side. We want to get to the kids who are not sexually active.”

With a higher Hispanic population, Hughes expects there will be some language barriers to deal with.

He says they are volunteer based and always looking for interested parties to help.

If you want to help or more information you can contact the Hope Resource Center at (865) 544-7776 or CLICK HERE.