HIGHLIGHTS
- Since 2010, ACF’s Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) funds programs to prevent adolescent pregnancy and support youth development.
- The Abt team will provide local evaluation support to PREP grantees and disseminate project information.
- Support to grantees will extend through 2026.
PROJECT
Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) Local Evaluation Support and Dissemination (PLESD)
The Challenge
The Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) oversees the four Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) grant programs: State Formula PREP, Competitive PREP, Personal Responsibility Education – Innovative Strategies (PREIS), and Tribal PREP. These programs aim to prevent adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and incorporate adult preparation topics such as healthy relationships, adolescent development, and parent-child communication.
With funding from FYSB, ACF’s Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) contracted with Abt Global and its partner, Child Trends to provide local evaluation support to PREP grantees and to disseminate project information. This local evaluation support will help to ensure that grantees conduct rigorous evaluations, which will add to the knowledge base of effective programming for preventing pregnancy and STIs among adolescents.
The Approach
This project:
(1) Provides group and individual local evaluation support, as well as resources to grantees and local evaluators to build their capacity to conduct rigorous research, strengthen programming, and ultimately improve outcomes for youth.
(2) Regularly engages grantees and local evaluators to provide input and feedback to ensure project activities align with grantees’ community needs and evaluation goals.
(3) Disseminates lessons learned and resources to further build capacity in the field of adolescent pregnancy prevention research.
The Results
The Abt team will lead interactive trainings and webinars, present at grantee meetings, develop evaluation resources, conduct site visits, and review grantee evaluation plans, analysis plans, and reports to support the grantees through 2026. Additionally, the project will include the development of a project website and the implementation of a community of learning.