Family Wellness TogetherSupporting Youth. Strengthening Families. Building Brighter Futures - Project Title: Family Wellness Together Applicant Name: Family Wellness Outreach Center of Mississippi, Inc. Address: 171 CR 1445, Mooreville, MS 38857-8008 Contact Name: Kristen Coward Meeks, Executive Director Contact Phone: 662-321-5995 Email Address: kmeeks.familywellness@gmail.com Web Address: www.familywellnessoutreachcenterofms.org Family Wellness Together (FWT) is a three-year multi-state sexual risk avoidance education (SRAE) initiative led by Family Wellness Outreach Center of Mississippi (FWOCM-MS) as fiscal agent, in partnership with Family Wellness Outreach Center of Arkansas (FWOCA-AR). The project will serve approximately 800 unduplicated youth annually (2,400) over three years), ages 10-19, in Tunica County, Mississippi and Greene County, Arkansas, with a focus on rural communities. Mississippi and Arkansas rank among the states with the highest teen birth rates in the nation, highlighting the need for effective adolescent pregnancy prevention services. Local conditions further demonstrate the need for intervention. Tunica County reports a teen birth rate of 61.5 births per 1,000 females, ages 15-19, while Greene County, Arkansas, reports 29.0 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19. The proposed service area also experiences elevated rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, demonstrating the need for evidence-based prevention and education services. FWT will provide developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, evidence-based SRAE programming that encourages youth to voluntarily avoid nonmarital sexual activity while building the knowledge and skills needed to make healthy decisions and pursue positive futures. Programming will strengthen personal responsibility, self-regulation, refusal and resistance skills, communication, healthy relationships, decision-making, goal setting, and future orientation. Approved evidence-based curricula, including Choosing the Best, Real Essentials, and Love Notes 4.2 will be implemented as developmentally appropriate. Youth will receive approximately six hours of instruction in grades 5-6, eight hours in grades 7-8, and ten hours in grades 9-12. Services will be delivered primarily through schools, with community-based opportunities used when appropriate to reach vulnerable and underserved youth. FWT will also engage approximately 80 parents/caregivers annually through parent education and family engagement activities designed to strengthen communication and reinforce healthy decision-making. Positive Youth Development, Youth Leadership Councils, community advisory groups, and referral linkages will complement core SRAE instruction by strengthening connections with caring adults, supportive services, and opportunities for leadership, education, workforce preparation, and future planning. FWOCM-MS will provide overall project leadership, fiscal and administrative oversight, performance monitoring, evaluation coordination, federal reporting, and grant compliance, and program implementation in Mississippi. FWOCA-AR will implement the program in Arkansas. Through this collaborative two-state partnership, FWT will equip adolescents with the knowledge, skills, relationships, and protective factors needed to voluntarily avoid nonmarital sexual activity, make healthy decisions, and pursue successful educational, workforce, relationships, and family outcomes.
