Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention

Through the State Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), FYSB awards grants to state agencies to educate young people on both abstinence and contraception. With efforts toward preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, PREP targets young people who are:

• Homeless
• In foster care
• Living in rural areas or areas with high teen birth rates
• From minority groups (including sexual minorities)

PREP also supports pregnant youth and mothers under the age of 21.

For more info, please see the  

Trough the Tribal Personal Responsibility Education Program (Tribal PREP), FYSB awards grants to Tribes and Tribal communities to develop and implement proven and culturally appropriate abstinence and contraceptive education and adolescent pregnancy prevention programs among youth in native communities. Programs follow design guidelines similar to those of State PREP, but are specially designed to honor tribal needs, traditions, and cultures. Competitive grants are available to tribes to combat the disproportionately high rates of teen pregnancy and birth.

For more information, please see the Tribal PREP fact sheet. To find a grantee, please see the FYSB grantee map and the Tribal PREP grantee profiles.

Through the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) Competitive Grants, FYSB awards grants to local organizations and entities to educate young people on both abstinence and contraception. With efforts toward preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, Competitive PREP targets young people who are:

• Homeless
• In foster care
• Living in rural areas or areas with high teen birth rates
• From minority groups (including sexual minorities)

Competitive PREP grants also support pregnant youth and mothers under the age of 21.

For more information, see the Competitive PREP fact sheet. For a list of grantees, please see the FYSB grantee map and Competitive PREP grantee profiles.

Through Personal Responsibility Education Innovative Strategies Program (PREIS), FYSB supports research and demonstration projects that implement innovative strategies for preventing pregnancy among youths aged 10-19 years.

Successful projects focus on youth who are:

• Homeless
• In foster care
• From racial and ethnic minority groups
• Living in areas with high teen birth rates
• Infected by HIV/AIDS
• Pregnant
• Mothers under the age of 21, along with their partners

For more information, please see the PREIS fact sheet. For a list of grantees, please see the FYSB grantee map and the PREIS grantee profiles.

The purpose of the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) Program is to fund projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity. SRAE Programs also teach the benefits associated with:

• self-regulation
• success sequencing for poverty prevention
• healthy relationships
• goal setting
• resisting sexual coercion
• avoiding dating violence
• resisting youth risk behaviors such as:
  • underage drinking
  • illicit drug use

Grantees use an evidenced based approach and/or effective strategies to educate youth on how to avoid risks that could lead to non-marital sexual activity. SRAE projects are implemented using a Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework as part of risk avoidance strategies, to help participants build healthy life skills, develop individual protective factors that reduce risks, empower youth to make healthy decisions, and provide tools and resources to prevent, pregnancy and STI. Linking program participants to services provided by local community partners that support the safety and well-being of youth is also a key component to the program.

For more information, please see the SRAE (General Departmental-Funded) Fact Sheet. For a list of grantees, please see the FYSB grantee map and the GD SRAE grantee profiles.

The purpose of the Title V State Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) Program is to fund states and territories to implement education exclusively on sexual risk avoidance that teaches youth to voluntarily refrain from sexual activity. The program is designed to teach youth personal responsibility, self-regulation, goal setting, healthy decision-making, a focus on the future, and the prevention of youth risk behaviors such as drug and alcohol use without normalizing teen sexual activity.

States use an evidence-based approach and/or effective strategies to educate youth on the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity and other risky behaviors. Title V State SRAE projects are implemented using a Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework as part of risk avoidance strategies to help participants develop healthy life skills, increase individual protective factors that reduce risks, make healthy decisions, engage in healthy relationships, and set goals that lead to self-sufficiency and marriage before engaging in sexual activity. Linking program participants to services provided by local community partners that support the safety and well-being of youth is also a key component of the program.

For more info, please see the Title V State SRAE Fact Sheet. For a list of grantees, please see the FYSB grantee map and the Title V State SRAE Profiles.

The Title V Competitive Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) Grant Program supports funding to projects that provide educational services for youth that normalizes the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity. Title V Competitive SRAE Programs are designed to teach youth the benefits associated with:

• personal responsibility
• self regulation
• goal setting
• healthy decision-making
• focusing on the future
• preventing youth risk behaviors such as:
  • underage drinking
  • illicit drug use

Grantees use an evidence-based approach and/or effective strategies to educate youth on the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity and other risky behaviors. Title V Competitive SRAE projects are implemented using a Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework as part of risk avoidance strategies to help participants develop healthy life skills, increase individual protective factors that reduce risks, make healthy decisions, engage in healthy relationships, and set goals that lead to self-sufficiency and marriage before engaging in sexual activity. Linking program participants to services provided by local community partners that support the safety and well-being of youth is also a key component of the program.

For more info, please see the Title V Competitive SRAE Fact Sheet. For a list of grantees, please see the FYSB grantee map and the Title V Competitive SRAE Profiles.

The Exchange: Advancing knowledge, collaboration, and partnerships to prepare teens for the future

The Exchange is your one-stop shop for Personal Responsibility Education Program and Sexual Risk Avoidance Education resources from FYSB, including webinars, tip sheets, infographics, training resources, and more.

The Exchange is an interactive destination for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program grantees, partners, and stakeholders to learn, connect, and increase the awareness, visibility, and impact of prevention education. We support organizations in their planning, delivery, and evaluation of APP programs that help prepare teens for the future by providing training and technical assistance, along with data-driven resources.

By connecting people and places, we aim to energize a network of youth-serving organizations to learn from each other’s successes and work together to tackle common challenges.

We Think Twice (WTT) is a social media campaign designed with teens for teens to help them live their best lives. WTT regularly delivers information, encouragement, tools, games, contests, and other “sticky” content to youth.

We Think Twice:

·         Delivers a comprehensive digital media campaign designed with youth for youth

·         Shifts perceptions and social norms

·         Supports resistance to negative peer pressure

·         Builds teens’ knowledge and skills to form healthy relationships, set goals for the future, and feel empowered to make healthy decisions

·         Supports the goals of FYSB’s Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program and their grantees

Encourage youth to get involved @WeThinkTwice, on Facebook & WTT Insiders.

ACF’s Family and Youth Services Bureau and the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) partner to support program evaluation efforts of the APP grantees. Since the start of the APP program, we have worked with grantees to integrate research into their programming, in order to learn, improve and advance the field of teen pregnancy prevention.  This partnership manages several performance and evaluation projects which document how APP programs are implemented and who is served, assess program effectiveness, and foster program innovation. Additionally, these projects translate research findings to promote continuous improvement of APP programming on the ground, and to inform the public and other stakeholders about APP accomplishments.  Training and technical assistance resources are also available to grantees to support the development and implementation of independent evaluations of their programs.