Saving Lives Empowering Youth (SLEY) to make Healthy Life Choices - Project Title: Saving Lives Empowering Youth Health Outreach Project (SLEY-HOP) Service area: Gary, Indiana (public and charter schools) Applicant Name: POP on Teen Violence, Inc [referred to as POP] Address: 900 W. Aldenbrook Court, IN 46307 Contact Name: Dr. Mike McGee, MD, MPH Contact Phone Numbers (Voice) (219) 730-7790 E-Mail Address: mmcgee~md@yahoo.com Web Site Address: www.poponviolence.org SRAE Program: HHS-2026-ACF-ACYF-SR-0012 Total Amount of Request: $449,998 annually for 3 years or $1,349,994 Brief statement of the project: POP on Teen Violence, Inc. (POP) proposes the Saving Lives Empowering Youth Health Outreach Project, a three-year SRAE project serving MS youth in grades 6–8 in Gary, Indiana. SLEY-HOP will address the need for early, developmentally appropriate prevention among youth experiencing elevated risks associated with adolescent sexual activity, community violence, peer pressure, substance use, unhealthy relationships, and other behaviors that can negatively affect their health and future opportunities. SLEY-HOP will provide voluntary, medically accurate, age-appropriate, culturally responsive, evidence-based sexual risk avoidance education that emphasizes voluntarily refraining from nonmarital sexual activity as optimal health behavior. The project will use a developmentally sequenced approach incorporating Botvin LifeSkills Training and Draw the Line/Respect the Line for students in grades 6 and 7 and Relationship Smarts PLUS 5.1 for students in grade 8. Project implementation and outcomes will be monitored and will include a local evaluation. Performance measures such as attendance, dosage data, curriculum fidelity tools, facilitator observations, FYSB-required participant entry and exit surveys will be developed by evaluation team and POP will use performance data for CQI (conducted by Collective Impact Strategies) to assess program reach, implementation quality, participant experiences, and short-term outcomes. Type of organization applying: POP on Teen Violence, Inc (POP) is a 501c3 that focuses on youth development by equipping young people with essential life skills, mentorship, and opportunities for safer futures. Geographic area to be served: The geographical area served by the project will serve the Gary community. Identified schools are located within a county that has high teen birth rates, high incidences of STDS, and pockets of poverty (low income). 3500 Students (over three years) in 6th-8th grade will be provided with the 15 session classroom curricula, plus a local evaluation consisting of PRE, POST and 12 month follow up. Fidelity will be closely monitored along with Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) by Collective Impact Strategies (local evaluator). Description of target population served: The project will target youth in 6th through 8th grade whose ages primarily range from 11-15 attending 6 middle (public and charter) schools in Gary, Indiana and will serve 3500 students over the three-year period. Short description of the intervention: The three-curricula intervention that is sequential in middle school (grades 6-8) presented during the school day in health classes seeks to strengthen knowledge, skills, protective factors, and future orientation that enable Gary youth to avoid sexual and other risk behaviors and make healthy decisions that support long-term well-being, self-sufficiency, healthy relationships, and future family stability. Grades 6/7 provides 15 sessions of curricula and Grade 8 provides 14 sessions that are SRAE compliant, includes information on human trafficking and is aligned with promoting healthy marriages and stable family formation.
