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The Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) program aimed to improve outcomes for expectant and parenting teens, women, fathers, and their families. The PAF program funded grantees in 32 states and seven tribal organizations; these grantees served nearly 110,000 expectant and parenting young people.
PAF Helped Young People Stay in School
PAF’s greatest impact was in education. Pregnancy and parenting are leading causes of school dropout among teen girls in the United States. PAF grantees offered services to expectant and parenting teens such as flexible or alternative academic scheduling and child care.
PAF grantees like the New Heights program assisted high school students as well as young people after high school. One in 10 PAF program participants received services from a higher education institution. The Minnesota Student Parent Support Initiative provided students furthering their education.
PAF Taught Parenting and Relationship Skills
The most common service in the PAF program was offering parenting skills education to expectant and parenting youth. Over 10 years, more than 4,000 participants received parenting classes from community programs funded by PAF. The classes covered topics such as safe sleep, infant CPR, and children’s development. In the St. Louis metropolitan area, home visitors from Right from the Start offered parenting classes.
PAF grantees also offered relationship education to help participants be better co-parents and/or strengthen their partnerships. Thirteen percent of PAF programs offered marriage strengthening classes, and they reached 2,611 participants. These classes covered, how to communicate with partners, ways to address intimate partner violence, and more.
PAF grantees like United Indian Health Services, Inc. developed classes that drew on the strengths and cultural traditions of the communities they served. You can read their stories in PAF Successful Strategies.
PAF in Maternal and Child Health Journal
The Maternal and Child Health Journal published a supplement about the PAF program. The supplement includes 19 articles and reports promising approaches, lessons learned, systematic reviews, and research analyses.