Extensive pregnancy prevention programs exist in the Austin/Travis County service area.
Although Travis County has seen a consistent decline in the teen birth rates over the past four years, the teen birth rates continue to be higher than national birth rates (Texas DSHS, 2014;
Martin, et al. 2013). The disparity between the number and quality of teen pregnancy prevention efforts and the teen birth rates in Travis County implies that there are additional regional barriers to pregnancy prevention that have not been addressed effectively.
A variety of teen pregnancy prevention interventions are available in community-based, clinic-based, and school-based settings in the Austin/Travis County area. Table 6 below is a chart of Austin/Travis County-based programs specifically targeting teen pregnancy prevention, a brief description of the services offered, and a categorization of the type of programming utilized.
HYP has categorized these programs based on the evaluation design, as well as designated them to be either comprehensive education or abstinence education, if applicable.
“Comprehensive” is used to describe programming that “explores the context for and meanings involved in sex” and typically includes promoting abstinence from sexual activity, acknowledging teen sexual activity, and lessons on contraception use and STIs. “Abstinence” is used to describe programming that focuses on “discussions of values, character building, and in some cases, refusal skills” and does not include discussions of teen sexual activity or contraception and condom use (Collins, Alagiri, & Summers, 2002).
The programs listed in Table 6 below represent programs and interventions practiced in Austin/Travis County. While these programs and interventions are not the only resources for pregnancy prevention in Austin, they represent well-known pregnancy prevention practices used by the community. Some programs, such as ones provided by community health educators with Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, provide comprehensive sex education upon request to any community member. Others focus on specific risk factors such as gender (i.e. Gender Matters) and family/community disorganization (i.e. Lifeworks) working with a set population determined through community partnerships.
Table 6. Teen pregnancy prevention programs in Austin and Travis County
Program Description Implementing
Agencies Service Population Funding Source Year Began
Evidence-based comprehensive programs
PREP: Be Proud! Be Responsible! Be Protected!
Be Proud! Be Responsible!
Sexuality education with teen parents utilizing Be Proud! Be Responsible! Be Protected! with adaptations.
Sexuality education with homeless, runaway and foster youth utilizing Be Proud! Be Responsible!
LifeWorks Community-based: Teen parents and homeless, runaway, and foster youth
ACF Personal Responsibility
Education Program Grantee 2013
PREP: Connections Project Sexuality education to foster and juvenile justice Making Proud Choices! curriculum with adaptations
Cardea Services
Education Program Grantee 2013
PREP: Making Proud
Choices! Sexuality education to youth utilizing Making Proud Choices!
curriculum with adaptations
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas EngenderHealth
School-based: High school
students ACF Personal Responsibility
Education Program Grantee 2013
REAL TALK Program Sexuality education to middle school youth utilizing It’s Your Game: Keep It Real and to early high school youth utilizing Reducing the Risk with adaptations
LifeWorks
Sisters Saving Sisters Sexuality education to female youth utilizing Sisters Saving
Sisters curriculum with adaptations Planned Parenthood
of Greater Texas Community & clinic-based:
Female teens
Private donations City of Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services Departments
2014
¡Cuidate! Peer to Peer
Program Sexuality education to high school youth utilizing ¡Cuidate!
curriculum and peer health educators
Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department
High school age
Latino/Hispanic youth Medicaid 1115 Waiver
program 2014
Project AIM: Adult Identity Mentoring
Project AIM is a group-level youth development intervention designed to reduce HIV risk behaviors among youth by encouraging at-risk youth to imagine a positive future and discuss how current risk behaviors can be a barrier to a successful adulthood
Abstinence-Centered Program Grantee 2012
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Program Description Implementing
Agencies Service Population Funding Source Year Began
Promising comprehensive programs
Austin Healthy Adolescent
Program Sexuality Education Sexuality education utilizing Big Decision curriculum for middle and high school youth
Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department
After school program: Youth
in juvenile probation City and County Health
Departments 2001
Big Decisions in AISD Sexuality education curriculum Austin Independent
School District School-based; Students in
health class AISD Physical education
budget 2010
Gender Matters
Newly developed teen pregnancy prevention curriculum with emphasis on gender messages and healthy
relationships, undergoing rigorous evaluation to determine evidence base
Get Real Sexuality education for youth utilizing Get Real curriculum Planned Parenthood
of Greater Texas School and community- based
Private donations;
Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services
2010
Wise Guys and Big Decisions Sexuality education for middle and high school students
utilizing the Wise Guys and Big Decisions curricula El Buen Samaritano
School-based: Youth attending an international school or involved in juvenile probation
Provides affordable, specialized, interdisciplinary healthcare including primary care, adolescent gynecology services, STD/pregnancy testing, prevention education, risk-reduction counseling, and social work services
People’s Community
Clinic Clinic-based: Teens and young adults ages 11-23
Interagency collaboration designed to provide medical, mental health, educational/vocational, and social support to low-income young parents and their children, seeking to promote the health and well-being of participating young families and reduce their risk of subsequent unplanned pregnancies
teen mothers up to age 17 St. David’s Community
Health Foundation 1997
LARC and STI Testing and Treatment Programs
Provides low-cost or free long-acting, reversible birth control, including IUDs and birth control implants, and low-cost or free sexually transmitted
Planned Parenthood
of Greater Texas Clinic-based: Low income,
uninsured Federal Funding 2013
Program Description Implementing
Agencies Service Population Funding Source Year Began
Programs not measured/status unknown
BrdsNBz Free sexual health text messaging service
Austin/Travis County
Series of sexuality education curricula developed for use within the Unitarian Universalist Church, equipping participants with accurate, age-appropriate information throughout the course of their lives, comprehensive
Dr. Laura Hancock,
Educational workshops to provide parents with the tools and resources to have conversations with their children around sexuality and healthy decision-making, comprehensive
Planned Parenthood
of Greater Texas Community-based: Parents Private donations 2009
Austin LifeGuard Sexual risk avoidance character and sex education program of Austin LifeCare, a non-profit pregnancy
resource center, abstinence Austin LifeCare Community-based: Middle
and high school students Private donations 1989
True Love Waits
Youth-based campaign encouraging moral purity by adhering to biblical principles and challenging youth to make a commitment to sexual abstinence until marriage, abstinence
Mt. Zion Baptist
Church Church-based Church budget 1997
SMART Moves
SMART Moves (Skills Mastery and Resistance Training) is a nationally acclaimed comprehensive prevention program that helps young people resist alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and avoid premature sexual activity.
Boys and Girls Clubs of
the Austin Area Youth involved in after school program
Unknown –
Un-known
Source: Information gathered from Youth Services Mapping database, each program’s corresponding web page, and program contacts at each organization
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