Thursday, May 16, 2024
5/16/2024
Children’s Aid (CA) will deliver evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs (EBPs) to New York City (NYC) youth in three unique settings: community-based organizations, a residential/group home, and public schools. These settings, and the youth they serve, are located in high-needs communities across four NYC boroughs. Specifically, our EBPs will reach youth receiving foster care or prevention services from NYC-contracted child welfare providers (Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island); youth residing at The Children’s Center, the city-operated residential home for children entering foster care (Manhattan); and youth who attend nine NYC public schools (Bronx and Staten Island). Teen births have declined overall in NYC in recent years, but still remain high in our communities of focus. Meanwhile, HIV and other STI rates are rising in those same neighborhoods, particularly among young adults. Our program will focus on a special population: youth in foster care. The precise rates of teen pregnancy or births for foster youth are not known, but research indicates that the rate of sexual activity among the population is higher than their peers; sexual risk behaviors further correlate to high rates of teen pregnancies, STIs, and HIV. Our services will reach nearly 400 child welfare-involved youth each year. Ensuring the health and wellness of all NYC teens is fundamental to the city's overall health. The need for school health education is an ongoing concern for many principals, particularly in high-need NYC districts with limited resources. Many schools have no health education courses, and in those that do, there are often more students than available classroom seats. Our EBPs will reach nearly 800 students in middle and high schools each year. In addition to EBP implementation with youth, we will also reach nearly 100 youth-serving staff and caregivers (including parents and foster parents) each year through trainings and workshops. Topics will include LGBTQIA+ sensitivities, starting courageous conversations, identifying human trafficking, helping youth access reproductive health care, understanding NYS adolescent health rights, and accessing community resources. CA will build upon the partnerships that we have developed as part of our successful implementation of an existing HHS-funded OPA TPP Program, ending in June 2023. We will collaborate with four child welfare providers (in addition to CA), three health care providers (in addition to CA), and expand our EBP work to include schools. We will work with partners in each of the proposed settings to select and implement an evidence-based model that is best suited to meet the needs of their specific populations. CA’s TPP Stakeholder Committee will drive this work; members of this committee include youth, provider partners, parents, and community members that will work together to inform project leadership and the broader community about TPP activities and outcomes. Our program’s youth participants may apply to become a Just Ask Me (JAM) Peer Health Educator – these youth provide reproductive health education for their peers, help youth strengthen their job readiness skills, and connect them with trusted adults and other youth with similar life experiences. They may also join the Youth Council that will offer input on the selected EBPs, youth development activities, and overall program design and implementation. CA has engaged Philliber Research & Evaluation to conduct an external implementation evaluation of our TPP Program. Our project is estimated to reach 5,900 total participants over five-years.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
