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Health Care Education and Training (HCET)

Published 2019

Clinton County Youth RISE! Project

The HCET Clinton County Youth RISE! Project, which includes the message: Don't become grandparents before your child graduates. Families talking together, call 659-6063.
“As a parent, I can open the door to let my son know that he can come to me if he starts to notice something different, has a question, or is concerned about something. Prior to this class, I had decided that I was just going to wait until he said something, and now I feel empowered to take the first step.”
- Youth RISE! Project parent participant

Program Description

The HCET Clinton County Youth RISE! (Responsible, Involved, Supported and Educated) Project provides age-appropriate, medically accurate, and evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programming to youth and their parents in Clinton County, Indiana. HCET collaborates with youth, parents, and local leaders on the selection and implementation of its interventions to ensure community buy-in and increase program efficacy.

Program Snapshot

  • Population: Students in grades 6-12 and their parents or other trusted adults, predominantly Hispanic/Latino and white
  • Location(s): Clinton County, IN
  • Partners: Healthy Communities of Clinton County Coalition, Learning Network of Clinton County, and Purdue Extension of Clinton County

Goals

  1. Improve participants’ behavioral, social, emotional, and sexual health outcomes
  2. Provide participants with knowledge and skills to prevent HIV, other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and unplanned pregnancy
  3. Increase effective communication between youth and parents or other trusted adults about sex and healthy relationships
  4. Reduce the Clinton County teen birth rate

Strategies

School-based interventions
The Youth RISE! Project implements two evidence-based programs in school-based settings: Draw the Line/Respect the Line at the middle school level and Reducing the Risk at the high school level. Through lessons with parents and activities with students—including lectures, role plays, games, small group work, and guest speakers—the programs provide youth with sexual health information and develop youths' decision-making, limit-setting, and refusal skills. To support the programs, Youth RISE! has conducted ongoing training and technical assistance with teachers, school support staff, and implementation partners on topics such as STD/HIV prevention, evaluation and monitoring tools, inclusivity, and cultural competency.

Family-based lessons
The Youth RISE! Project implements a third evidence-based program in community-based settings: Families Talking Together (FTT) targets parents of 10- to 14-year-olds and aims to increase parent-child communication about sexual health, decision-making, relationships, and family values and expectations. Using medically accurate and age-appropriate information, FTT provides parents with an 11-module workbook with sexual health conversation topics, tips on communication and relationship building, and strategies for parental monitoring. Parents meet one-on-one or in small groups with a trained coach to discuss the curriculum and build communication skills.

Community-based approach
The Youth RISE! Project uses a community-based approach, integrating the perspectives of local youth, parents, professionals, and leaders into the program. Through participation in the Youth Leadership Council (YLC), a diverse group of adolescents meet monthly to offer a youth perspective on aspects of the program. The Community Advisory Board, composed of parents, professionals, and YLC members, meets bi-monthly to support the YLC’s ideas, events, and projects. Program staff collaborated with both councils and other local leaders to select the Youth RISE! Project’s interventions and ensure they were linguistically and culturally appropriate for the community.

Stats at a Glance

  • 34.0 Clinton County teen birth rate (per 1,000 females ages 15-19) in 20171
  • 18.8 National teen birth rate (per 1,000 females ages 15-19) in 20172
  • 2,562 Middle and high school students and parents served through the Youth Rise! Project (2015-2018)

After participating in the Youth RISE! Project (2015-2018):

  • 97% percent of high school students who were able to identify multiple characteristics of a healthy relationship
  • 94% percent of high school students who reported being able to say no to someone who was pressuring them to have sex
  • 91% percent of middle school students who reported that it is not all right to pressure someone into sexual activity

Grantee Information

Leigh Zaban
Director of Community Programs & Partnerships
317-247-9008
lzaban@hcet.org
https://hcet.org/

Print the full success story here.

About the TPP Program

The Office of Population Affairs Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program is a federal grant program that funds diverse organizations working to prevent teen pregnancy across the United States. OPA invests in both the implementation of evidence-based programs and the development and evaluation of new and innovative approaches to prevent teen pregnancy. The OPA TPP program reaches adolescents ages 10-19, with a focus on populations with the greatest need in order to reduce disparities in teen pregnancy and birth rates.

Footnotes

1 Indiana State Department of Health. Indiana Natality Report, State and County Data 2017. (2018). https://www.in.gov/isdh/19095.htm. back to top

2 Martin, J.A., Hamilton, B.E., Osterman, M.J., Driscoll, A.K., & Drake, M.S. (2018). Births: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Report, 67(8). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr67/nvsr67_08-508.pdf. back to top