South Texas Teen Leadership & Development Program (STTLD) - South Texas Teen Leadership & Development (STTLD) Community Action Corporation of South Texas 204 E. First St. Alice, TX 78332 Ph: 361-664-0145 ann.awalt@cacost.org www.cacost.org Community Action Corporation of South Texas (CACOST), a private nonprofit 501 (c)(3) corporation, will encourage youth to avoid nonmarital sexual activity and other risky behaviors linked to adolescent sex through their South Texas Teen Leadership & Development Program (STTLD) program. STTLD will implement the evidence-based Love Notes 4.2 Abstinence Only curriculum, which teaches skills to help teens avoid risk without normalizing sexual activity outside of marriage and emphasizing avoiding nonmarital sexual activity as optimal healthy behavior. The program will serve high-school aged teens in Brooks, Duval, Jim Wells, and western Nueces counties. The need for such programming in the area is evidenced by teen pregnancy rates (30-52) higher than the state (18.5) and at least twice that of the nation (12.6), high poverty rates, low educational attainment rates, higher state rates of dating violence, and high rates of single parent households and fertility among unmarried mothers. CACOST is requesting $1,350,000 over the three-year project period ($450,000 annually) to implement STTLD to 3,170 high school-aged teens (14-18). During the school year, Love Notes 4.2 Abstinence Only, a 13-lesson curriculum, will be implemented over the course of a semester to 9th-grade teens in eight high schools in seven school districts. In the summer months, the curriculum will be implemented with teens (ages 14-18) at two local Boys & Girls Clubs and a BT Church location. STTLD will support ACF’s A Home for Every Child through collaboration with Brush County CASA to aid in the recruitment of foster children. Using a sexual risk avoidance and positive youth development approach, the curriculum provides education on personal responsibility, self-regulation, setting goals, healthy decision making, planning for the future, how to resist and avoid sexual coercion, dating violence, human trafficking, and discourages risk behaviors (e.g., underage drinking and illicit drug use). In addition, the program will work with implementation setting partners to refer teens to local healthcare and social service partners to promote the health, safety, and well-being of teens. CACOST’s capacity to successfully implement the proposed project is framed by strong leadership and governance, 55 years of organizational growth, and proven experience delivering teen pregnancy prevention programming since 2012. The program will be administered in accordance with ACF and SRAE priorities with attention paid to promoting work and self-sufficiency, promoting marriage and family formation, gold-standards research, and ensuring value alignment in funding. Working with implementation setting partners, STTLD will ensure a successful, sexual risk avoidance-focused approach that empowers teen participants to make healthy decisions through evidence-based programming and the necessary tools and resources to prevent pregnancy. Ultimately, programming will lead to student success, less risk¬ taking behavior, and a reduction in the rate of teen pregnancy and STIs in the proposed service area.
