Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) is applying for the 2023 grant opportunity from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs, Office of the Assistance Secretary of Health entitled Advancing Equity in Adolescent Health through Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs and Services: AH-TP1-23-001 to support the Choctaw Nation’s SMART (Setting Morals and Resisting Temptations) Program. CNO is an American Indian Tribe federally recognized by the United States Secretary of the Interior located in extremely rural, southeastern Oklahoma (there is no major metropolitan city within its boundary). CNO is “integrated” and tribal members live in communities with citizens of all races. Choctaw children go to public schools, and tribal members’ lives are inseparably tied to the lives of all community members. The communities in the TSA are admittedly distressed. This rural region struggles with extreme poverty, unemployment, and low educational attainment. In fact, southeastern Oklahoma has some of the poorest counties in the state, and indeed, the entire U.S. with all 13 counties of the CNO having been designated as USDA StrikeForce areas, which consists of “the country’s most economically challenged areas”. The 2023 grant program funded under Advancing Equity in Adolescent Health through Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs and Services will be implemented in three unique settings throughout six counties in southeast Oklahoma: Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, McCurtain, Pittsburg and Pushmataha. The program holds frequent meetings with the Community Advisory Board and Youth Leadership Council throughout the grant period. The Choctaw Nation Teen Pregnancy Prevention (SMART) Program will implement two evidence-based curricula in participating schools and community partners.
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).