Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP-sexual education) for Foster Care and Adjudicated Youth

Youth residing in foster care and/or involved with juvenile justice agencies have unique circumstances that contribute to their increased risk for unplanned teen pregnancies and higher rates of sexually transmitted infections.

Youth in these systems are highly mobile, often moving between group homes, foster families, detention centers and biological families. One consequence of this mobility can be irregular school attendance which may impact learning and the opportunity to obtain health information.

Throughout the state of Ohio, PREP funding will provide education outside of the school day to youth about both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS, and also three adulthood preparation subjects to assist youth as they transition out of placement into independent living.

Through funding provided by the Ohio Department of Health, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health will coordinate PREP programming throughout a five-county region. The CCBH's PREP initiative aims to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates for youth who are currently in foster care or the juvenile justice systems by educating the direct-care staff in those systems to become trainers in evidence-based pregnancy prevention programming. This train-the-trainer model seeks to enhance professional development at the local level for direct care staff while providing sustainability for pregnancy prevention and life skills education for youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems.

To successfully implement this five county initiative, CCBH plans to partner with the following three subcontracted agencies: the Family Planning Association of Northeast Ohio (serving Lake, Ashtabula and Geauga Counties); Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio (serving Cuyahoga County) and the Elyria City Health District (serving Lorain County).

Learn more about the Ohio Department of Health's PREP initiative.

Contact Information

Sandi Hoch, R.N.
Supervisor
216-201-2001 ext 1341
shoch@ccbh.net

Aisha Cody
Grant Coordinator
216-201-2001 ext 1512
acody@ccbh.net