Pathway Family Services: Abstinence, Contraception, and Adulthood Readiness for California's Foster and Child-Welfare-Involved Youth - Pathway Family Services, Inc. proposes a three-year Competitive Personal Responsibility Education Program to prevent adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and promote healthy transitions to adulthood among foster youth and other at-risk young people in California. The project will serve 200 youth annually and 600 youth over three years across Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. The project will primarily serve foster youth ages 14–19, including youth in traditional and Intensive Services Foster Care, as well as eligible pregnant and parenting youth under age 21. Approximately 75% of participants will be recruited through Pathway's existing foster youth programs, with approximately 25% coming from other Pathway programs serving eligible at-risk youth, including young people involved with the child welfare system, at risk of homelessness, or experiencing significant behavioral health needs. This population was selected because foster youth experience elevated pregnancy risk while placement changes, school disruption, chronic absenteeism, housing instability, and changing relationships with trusted adults can interrupt access to consistent prevention education. Pathway will deliver Love Notes 4.1 CSE, an evidence-based healthy relationship and pregnancy prevention program, supplemented by REAL Essentials content addressing body literacy and human trafficking prevention. Participants will complete 13 weekly, in-person sessions totaling 14 hours of instruction. Programming will provide medically accurate, age-appropriate information and place substantial emphasis on both abstinence and contraception for preventing pregnancy and STIs, including HIV. Of the instructional time devoted specifically to these two prevention domains, approximately 69% will address abstinence, sexual risk avoidance, and delayed sexual initiation and 31% will address contraception and STI/HIV prevention. The project will also address three Adulthood Preparation Subjects: Healthy Relationships, Adolescent Development, and Healthy Life Skills. Youth will build skills in communication, healthy decision-making, relationship boundaries, goal setting, problem solving, refusal and negotiation, stress management, and future planning. Participants will also receive age-appropriate body literacy, human trafficking and sexual violence prevention, online safety education, and connections to educational, career, counseling, behavioral health, housing, and other youth-friendly services. Programming will use small cohorts, trained facilitators, trauma-informed practices, meaningful youth engagement, fidelity monitoring, and continuous quality improvement. Pathway will collect required PREP performance measures and conduct an independent local evaluation examining implementation fidelity, participant outcomes, and differences in outcomes among the populations served. Through this project, Pathway seeks to provide young people with the knowledge, relationships, skills, and service connections needed to prevent unintended pregnancy and STIs, make informed decisions, develop healthy relationships, pursue educational and employment goals, and successfully transition to adulthood.
