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Projects & Activities

Ongoing Activities

Integration of Teen Pregnancy Prevention into State and Local Child Welfare Systems

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation will be implementing a project that will adapt and incorporate an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention curriculum into independent living (IL) or transition planning (TP) programs operated by public child welfare systems in up to five states.  The National Campaign is implementing this project in partnership with American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and its affiliate, the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA) over three years, ending in 2014. 

The goal of the project is to reduce the high rates of pregnancy among youth in foster care which will, in turn, improve a number of outcomes for children, youth, and families in public child welfare placement systems.  Youth in foster care have higher rates of early pregnancy and childbearing than youth more generally.  This is a “program and practice” project that will address the “supply gap” of evidence-based programs suitable for vulnerable youth in foster care who are at high risk of teen pregnancy.  We have proposed to adapt the existing evidence-based curriculum Making Proud Choices! so it can be readily incorporated into existing IL or TP programs operated by public child welfare agencies. 

A National Advisory Committee made up of child welfare professionals was convened to advise The National Campaign, APHSA, and NAPCWA throughout the project.  Objectives of the project include  (1) the development of replication and training materials for staff operating IL or TP programs; (2) the provision of training and support for system change through an “Institute”---an APHSA organizational effectiveness model---for up to five state teams to successfully embed this evidence-based curriculum in existing programs; (3) the evaluation of the impact this integrated program has on adolescents (primarily changes in risky sexual behavior) as well as on public child welfare systems; and (4) the dissemination results of the project to federal, state, local and tribal policy and decision makers and legislators in an effort to influence ongoing improvements to child welfare programs. 

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) youth in foster care who participate in the program will see positive changes in sexual behavior compared to similar youth in foster care that will likely lead to fewer teen births; (2) public child welfare agencies in up to five states will successfully integrate evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention information into existing IL or TP programs; and (3) the approach in these states will serve as a model that can be replicated throughout the nation.  It is expected that approximately 500 ethnically-diverse adolescents in IL or TP programs in up to five states will receive evidence-based information on pregnancy prevention.  The impact of the program including improved outcomes for participating youth, as well as the ability of the public agencies to embed new program content into existing IL or TP programs will be assessed. 

 

 

Previous Activities

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Among Youth in Foster Care Multi-State Project

Between 2009-2011, in collaboration with the Healthy Teen Network and with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy worked to increase actions by states and other organizations to reduce teen pregnancy among youth in and aging out of foster care. 

One of the first steps supporting this effort was convening program leaders and practitioners in the fields of teen pregnancy prevention and child welfare at an interactive roundtable in April 2009.  Eight states—Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Virginia—were invited to participate, based on their previous work in this area.  Interagency teams from each state attended the roundtable to achieve the following objectives:  (1) learn from one another about innovative strategies to reduce teen pregnancy among youth in foster care and (2) develop an action plan to advance this work in their respective state.

The roundtable was a great success. Once action plans were developed, The National Campaign provided ongoing support and technical assistance to the state teams to ensure successful completion of their plans throughout the three year project. 

Please take a moment to look at the reports and policy recommendations below developed by a few of our state teams as a result of this effort.