Equipping Youth SRAE Program - E3 Family Solutions, Inc. (E3) proposes a three-year sexual risk avoidance education project serving 1,500 youth ages 10–19 at seven school and juvenile justice sites in Sumter and Hernando Counties, Florida. The target community demonstrates elevated teen birth and sexually transmitted infection rates, poverty, unemployment, family instability, and other youth risk factors. The 2024 teen birth rate across the target community is 17.6 per 1,000, approximately 1.4 times both the Florida and national rates. E3 will address these needs through voluntary, medically accurate and complete, age-appropriate, culturally appropriate, evidence-based sexual risk avoidance education that normalizes avoiding nonmarital sexual activity as the optimal health behavior. E3 will deliver the evidence-based REAL Essentials curriculum to 500 youth annually across four middle schools, one alternative school, and two juvenile justice programs, including justice-involved youth. REAL Essentials addresses all six statutory A–F topics and the Success Sequence for Poverty Prevention within a positive youth development approach. Universal human trafficking education will be provided to all participants. Educators will screen 100% of youth for identified needs and connect youth to accessible youth-friendly community partners that do not normalize sexual activity outside of marriage; urgent referrals will be initiated within 72 hours. E3 will also educate 250 parents, caregivers, and community leaders during the project period. E3 will train 100% of staff annually and monitor curriculum fidelity through classroom observation. AMTC & Associates will conduct the Project Performance Assessment, including performance measurement, data quality, fidelity monitoring, reporting, and continuous quality improvement. E3 will collect and report required program performance measures and use data to strengthen implementation and program quality. The project advances the ACF priorities of Promoting Work and Self-Sufficiency, Promoting Marriage and Family Formation, and Ensuring Value Alignment in Funding and incorporates ACF’s A Home for Every Child initiative. By the end of program delivery, E3 expects at least 75% of youth to demonstrate increased intentions to delay sexual activity until marriage, increased self-regulation skills, increased skills to resist sexual coercion, and increased intentions to follow the Success Sequence for Poverty Prevention; 85% of youth will report program satisfaction; and 80% of adults completing education will report increased skills to support youth. E3 requests $450,000 annually, $1,350,000 over the three-year project period.
