The Georgia Wellness Group, Inc., Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Empowered Project - Summary: The Georgia Wellness Group, DBA Obria GA, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, American Association of Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC)-accredited, community sexual and reproductive health care clinic in Lawrenceville, GA. Its mission is to empower the community to make healthy decisions regarding their health and well-being by providing medical services, foundational education, and material services to women, youth, and families. Obria GA founded the Empowered Program in 2003 and has 21 years of experience in developing and operating programs to strengthen families in the areas of adolescent pregnancy prevention (APP), positive youth development (PYD), and healthy relationship education. The purpose of this project is to deliver an evidence-based SRAE program that includes PYD to youth ages 13-19, to help them voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity and increase protective factors and emotional well-being. Obria GA will provide SRAE & PYD services in Gwinnett, Walton, Dekalb, and Barrow counties in Georgia. The proposed program will help youth build healthy life skills, empower them to make healthy decisions, and provide resources to prevent pregnancy and STIs, and other risk behaviors. The program includes referrals and linkages with follow-up, as appropriate, to youth-friendly services to support the overall physical and emotional well-being of the target population. Obria GA will have one contract: AMTC & Associates will provide the Project Performance and Local Evaluation. Target population(s): The project will target youth ages 13-19 living in 4 counties with the high TBRs, STIs, and poverty in Georgia. Needs to be addressed: The combined TBR for the target community (TC) is 17.3, more than 1.28 times as high as the rest of US (13.5). In addition, the TC is characterized by disproportionately high rates of STIs for both the teen chlamydia rate (TCR) and the teen gonorrhea rate (TGR). The TCR and TGR for the TC is 2 times that of the US. Proposed services: The Obria GA SRAE program will provide evidence-based SRAE curricula Love Notes 4.1 and Relationship Smarts Plus 5.1 and positive youth development services in the areas of healthy relationship education, career preparation, poverty prevention through selfsufficiency, and healthy life skills to 1,250 youth ages 13-19 over 3 years. The project will promote social and emotional well-being, assess youth needs, provide linkages and referrals with identified needs to youth-friendly services, and conduct follow-up as appropriate. Obria GA will also coordinate educational workshops and provide an E-learning site to educate 300 parents/caregivers over 3 years on risky behaviors and protective factors and help them develop skills to promote positive youth development.
