Fact Sheet: FY 2018 Funding Opportunity Announcements for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program

Background: Teen birth rates in the U.S. have steadily dropped since their peak in the early 1990s, dropping to a record low in 2016.  Unfortunately, great disparities continue in teen birth rates—by age, race and ethnicity, geography, and among especially vulnerable populations (homeless, living in foster care, or involved with the juvenile justice system).

On March 23, 2018, the Consolidated Appropriation Act, 2018 (Public Law No: 115-141) appropriated $101,000,000 to make competitive contracts and grants to public and private entities to fund medically accurate and age appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy.

As a result, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health, is issuing two Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs):

• Phase 1 for Replicating Programs (Tier 1) Effective in the Promotion of Healthy Adolescence and the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy and Associated Risk Behaviors.
• Phase 1 New and Innovative Strategies (Tier 2) to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy and Promote Healthy Adolescence.

The overall goal of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program is to give youth the information and skills that will enable them to prevent pregnancy and related risks, in order to successfully navigate from adolescence into adulthood.  These funding opportunity announcements will fund projects that will serve teens most vulnerable to teen pregnancy, STDs, multiple partners, and other risks associated with sexual activity. 

These FOAs will fund significantly more Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program projects than before, with the intent of (1) serving more youth (2) identifying more effective and promising approaches for youth, and (3) ensuring all youth understand that teen sex is a risk behavior and that they always have the opportunity to make healthier choices in the future.

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is divided into two tiers: 

Tier 1 projects will be awarded to applicants to replicate one of two effective programs that include the protective factors shown to be effective in preventing teen pregnancy and/or sexual risk behaviors with youth. Applicants will have the freedom to choose any curriculum so long as it incorporates the evidence-based elements of one of the two programs. If the curriculum does not satisfy each required element, applicants must either work with the publisher to adapt the curriculum or include supplementary materials to satisfy the missing element(s). This approach affords recipients more flexibility, while requiring programs to adhere to the most meaningful aspects of the available evidence base.

Tier 2 projects will afford recipients significant flexibility to develop and test new approaches, encouraging innovation and offering new opportunities for expanding the evidence base regarding teen pregnancy prevention.

Both funding opportunity announcements promote healthy adolescence and address youth sexual risk holistically, focusing on the interrelated factors that promote optimal health and result in healthy decision-making, including teen pregnancy prevention.

Process: The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program cooperative agreements are awarded through a competitive process to public and private entities.  A competitive funding announcement is published at grants.gov announcing the competition.  

Eligible applications will be reviewed by a panel of independent reviewers, who are experts in their fields. Applications will be evaluated based on criteria in the TPP Funding Opportunity Announcements. Federal staff will also review each application for programmatic, budgetary and grants management compliance. 

The Director of the Office of Adolescent Health, in consultation with the Assistant Secretary for Health, will make final award selections. 

These cooperative agreements will be approved for a project period of up to two years.

Funds for Phase 1 Replicating Programs (Tier 1) Effective in the Promotion of Healthy Adolescence and the Reduction of Teenage Pregnancy and Associated Risk Behaviors

Overview: This Funding Opportunity Announcement solicits applications for cooperative agreements that will replicate one of two effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy and address youth sexual risk holistically with the result of improving healthy decision making and enhancing protective factors. Applicants have extensive flexibility to select a curriculum of their choice, so long as it replicates each of the key elements of one of two effective programs:

• The Tool to Assess the Characteristics of Effective Sex and STD/HIV Education Programs, developed by ETR, uses a sexual risk reduction model.
• Systematic Method for Assessing Risk-avoidance Tool (SMARTool), developed by the Center for Relationship Education, uses a sexual risk avoidance model.

Amount of Funds Available: Up to $61.0 Million

Number of Awards: Up to 270 Cooperative Agreements

Amount of Each Award: Awards will range from $200,000 to $500,000 per year.

Eligible Organizations: Public and private entities

Applications Due:  Friday, June 29 by 6:00 P.M. ET

Funds for Phase 1 New and Innovative Strategies (Tier 2) to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy and Promote Healthy Adolescence

Overview:  This funding opportunity announcement solicits applications for cooperative agreements to develop and test new and innovative strategies to prevent teen pregnancy and improve adolescent health and address youth sexual risk holistically by focusing on protective factors.   Applicants have great flexibility in designing an innovative approach. Applicants either may design and test an innovative approach surrounding one or more elements from one of the Tier 1 effective programs or may design an innovative approach that incorporates protective factors shown to be effective in preventing teen pregnancy and sexual risk.

Amount of Funds Available: Up to $22.0 Million

Number of Awards: Up to 75 Cooperative Agreements

Amount of Each Award: Awards will range from $250,000 to $375,000 per year.

Eligible Organizations: Public and private entities

Applications Due: Friday, June 29 by 6:00 P.M. ET

NOTE: We encourage all potential applicants to review all program requirements, eligibility information, application format, and submission information, evaluation criteria and other information in this funding announcement to ensure that its application complies with all requirements and instructions.