OAH leads a new evidence-based initiative to reduce teen pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and risky sexual behavior among adolescents. Funding from the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP) supports competitive grants to public and private entities to fund medically accurate and age-appropriate programs that reduce teen pregnancy and the federal costs associated with administration and evaluation. A key component underlying OAH's grant programs is an independent, systematic review of the evidence base on programs to reduce teen pregnancy, STDs, and associated sexual risk behaviors. The review identifies, assesses, and rates the rigor of program evaluation studies and describes the strength of evidence supporting different program models. Findings are used to identify program models that meet the criteria for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) List of Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs. Identifying these evidence-based programs allows for replication and testing of the programs in different settings or with different populations to learn more about the programs' effectiveness, and to undertake and test new, innovative programs or to test significant adaptations to an evidence-based program.

The Office of Adolescent Health administers a two-tiered Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant program and works in concert with closely aligned programs supported by other federal agencies.

• Replication of Evidence-Based Programs: OAH funds replications of 31 program models from the HHS List of Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Programs through 75 different grantees. Funded organizations selected the program model or models to replicate based on their communities' needs. The evaluation of these replications will contribute additional knowledge about these program models.
• Research and Demonstration Projects: To develop and test additional models and innovative strategies to prevent teen pregnancy, OAH funds 19 TPP research and demonstrations programs, and the Administration on Children and Families (ACF) funds an additional 13 innovative strategy projects targeting vulnerable populations, such as youth in foster care and homeless youth. OAH also provides funds for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement and test community-wide approaches to teen pregnancy prevention, focusing on eight communities with very high teen birth rates. These federal agencies collaborate to provide technical assistance, information exchange, and reporting among grantees.

See the complete list of OAH grantees here.

In addition, the Affordable Care Act provides funding to replicate evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program models through the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), administered by the Family Youth Service Bureau (FYSB) within ACF. The ACF/FYSB programs include competitive PREP Innovative Strategies (PREIS) cooperative agreement grants, which were issued in conjunction with the OAH research and demonstration grants;

Read more about the PREIS grantees here. 

A performance measurement system is being implemented in 2012 to track standard measures across all TPP grantees. Performance measures include grant-level measures of the processes and accomplishments of the project and participant-level measures of the perceived impact of the program on the young people that it serves. In addition, the system involves multiple levels of evaluations. Read more.

For additional strategies and approaches, please see here.