©
1999 The Grant Doctors / 10049 Yukon River Way, First Floor, Rancho
Cordova, CA 95670 / 916.638.7309| Project budget: | $200,000 |
| Requested amount: | $200,000 |
| Proposal status: | Review pending |
| Funding source: | State of California |
Applicant Capability
Agency Background
The Department of Health and Human Services, under the supervision of the Board of Supervisors, serves as the local public health department for Sacramento County. Established in 1950, DHHS provides community-wide health and human services to Sacramento County residents.
Sacramento County DHHS has a history of successfully collaborating with the public and private sectors in the development and implementation of numerous multi-disciplinary projects including the Youth Gangs Drug Prevention Partnership, Oak Park Neighborhood Project, Healthy Start Schools and Cities In Schools. Specifically, the Public Health Promotion and Education Division within DHHS has also worked with the community taking the lead role in the development of prevention programs and coalitions/advisory groups. These programs include Tobacco, Immunization, AIDS and the Maternal and Child Adolescent Health (MCAH) program.
Since 1996, Sacramento County's Project M.A.L.E. (Males Attaining Leadership through Education) has provided teen pregnancy prevention and male responsibility education to at-risk students in selected junior high schools and high schools in the Sacramento City and Elk Grove Unified School Districts. Over the past six years, the MCAH program has been actively involved in working with community organizations to address issues around teen pregnancy. Since 1992, outreach workers in our Clinics Branch have conducted presentations focusing on pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted infection prevention to at-risk students in local junior high schools and high schools. Other programs such as Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the County Department of Human Assistance (DHA) are also engaged in pregnancy prevention education with their female clients.
Program Experience with At-Risk Males
Through various Sacramento County programs like TeenSMART; Healthy Teen Mothers; WIC; Department of Human Assistance; Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health; Project M.A.L.E. the HIV Youth Prevention and Education (HYPE); CARE-A-VAN; Tobacco Education Program; the Del Paso Heights Neighborhood Service Agency; and their subcontractors, DHHS has direct, and indirect (via their female partners), access to high-risk teen males and absentee fathers. During fiscal year 19951996, these programs served over 10,000 as-risk males through media events, educational sessions, risk assessment and counseling services and support groups. Our proposed program will complement our existing activities by reaching an audience not currently served: young males at the Warren G. Thornton Youth Center (probation department).
Several DHHS intervention programs are addressing teen pregnancy prevention; specifically, many programs are providing services in areas which have been identified as "hot spots" including zip codes 95814, 95815, 95817, 95820, 95823, 95825, 95838, 95660 and 95670. In these areas, there are higher percentages of births to teen mothers and disproportionate concentrations of ethnic minorities in comparison to the rest of the county.
Agency's Existing Target Population
Sacramento County DHHS, as the local public health department, serves the entire population of the county. Our clients are racially, ethnically and culturally diverse and are representative of the population at large. For a detailed description of our community, please see "Community Characteristics" under the Description of Program Strategies section.
Agency's Experience with Proposed Strategies
Sacramento County DHHS currently teaches a pregnancy prevention curriculum in local junior high schools and high schools. The curriculum has been very well received by the students and school teachers alike. DHHS also participates regularly in health fairs and community events to promote healthy lifestyles, disseminate information about county services and address culturally specific health issues. We have access to teens through our coalitions and advisory groups and actively seek their opinions on how to improve our existing programs to make them more relevant and useful for students. In addition to providing primary health services, our Clinical Services branch conducts outreach and education presentations to teens for pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted infection prevention.
Referral Procedures
The curriculum instructor will make the participants aware of available community resources-specifically, the Sacramento County health clinics. Program participants will self-refer themselves. Teens will be given bookmarks with the addresses of all our clinics and a list of our available services. The referral sources include:
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Organizational Chart
Please see the attachment for the organizational chart, including where our proposed program fits in the DHHS structure.
Job Descriptions
Health Educator
The health educator plans, implements and evaluates health education programs. S/he applies health education principles and practices in developing materials, conducting workshops/trainings, working with community-based organizations, and staffing coalitions and committees so as to change community norms with regard to health-related behaviors.
Our project staff, and the entire DHHS staff, reflects the racial/ethnic composition of the target group.
MIP Funded Projects
Not applicable. Sacramento County DHHS does not/has not receive MIP funding.
Board Members
Not applicable. Sacramento County DHHS is a government agency.
Description of Program Strategies
Needs Statement and Identification of Target Groups
Target Community Description
Project R.E.A.L. (Responsibility - Education - Achievement - Leadership) will serve regions of Sacramento County with teen birth rates exceeding the state average. However, a major educational component of our program focuses on teen males in the juvenile detention facility. These teens are high-risk but they come from all over Sacramento County, not just the "hot spots."
During 1996, Sacramento County recorded a total of 2,176 adolescent births (age <20). Sacramento County has a teenage pregnancy rate comparable to the state: 57.1 per thousand for Sacramento County (ages 15-19) vs. 61.6 per thousand for the State of California (ages 15-19). Of the 2,176 births, 40% were to Caucasian mothers, 25% to Hispanic mothers, 20% to African American mothers, 13% to Asian/Pacific Islander mothers and less than 1% to American Indian mothers.
Please see "Target Population Description" below for details about the men that fathered these children.
Community Characteristics
Sacramento County is in the heart of California's Central Valley and is home to the state capital. According to 1994 California Department of Finance figures, the County population is 1,161,631. This population is quite diverse. Based on 1990 census figures, 69.3% of the County's population is Caucasian, 11.7% Hispanic, 9.0% African American, 8.8% Asian/Pacific Islander, 0.9% American Indian and 0.2% other. Approximately 30% of the population is under age 19, 60% between the ages of 19 and 65 while the remaining 10% is older than 65 years of age. The median age in Sacramento County is 33.24 years.
In 1990, 6.3% of Sacramento County's work force was unemployed. Unemployment rates were higher among people of color-11.8% for African Americans, 11.7% for American Indians, 9.3% for Hispanics and 7.5% for Asians/Pacific Islanders. In 1995, the unemployment rate fluctuated between a low of 6.6% to a high of 7.2%
The median household income in Sacramento County for 1992 was $37,841. Approximately 12% of the County's population lives below the poverty level and nearly 15% of Sacramento's households receive public assistance. In January 1990, 16,172 households in the County received food stamps and by 1995, the number had increased to 33,785-a 109% increase.
Almost 18% of all Sacramento County residents over 18 years of age have not completed high school. In 1993, the County recorded 2,866 drop-outs. However, 23% of the county's population has completed college. Sacramento ranks twentieth among California counties in the number of Spanish-speaking students, second in the number of Hmong, fourth in Cantonese, sixth in Vietnamese and eleventh in Cambodian-speaking students. Additionally, more than one of four or the state's Russian-speaking students attend school in Sacramento County.
Target Area & "Hot Spots"
Our program will target several "hot spots" of teen birth rates. Specifically, our activities will take place in the following zip codes:
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Teen Birth Rates (per 1,000) |
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Zip Codes |
Age 15 - <18 |
Age 18 - <20 |
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95815 |
135 |
210 |
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95817 |
84 |
229 |
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95820 |
83 |
166 |
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95821 |
49 |
172 |
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95823 |
81 |
147 |
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95832 |
77 |
100 |
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95838 |
95 |
186 |
Source: California Department of Health Services
All of the age ranges in our targeted zip codes-except for one-far exceeds the state's 1996 teen birth rate of 61.6 per 1,000. Sacramento County DHHS, WIC and the Department of Human Assistance have offices and programs currently operating in each of these zip codes.
Obstacles and Opportunities
Project R.E.A.L. offers several opportunities for the Sacramento community. First, we will be able to extend our current teen pregnancy prevention program to the Warren G. Thornton Youth Center (probation department). These ethnically diverse teens serve, on average, 12 week stays and are a perfect fit for our 12-week curriculum. They are clearly at-risk of teen fatherhood and would benefit from our educational program.
Second, we will partner with the WIC program's parenting education classes that currently focus on pregnant and parenting mothers. Our program will teach the teen mothers' partners about responsible fathering.
Third, this grant will allow us to begin a role-modeling project where teen males can learn from older fathers from a variety of backgrounds and professions. This group of role-models will serve as a resource to answer questions about fatherhood, the importance of school and how to prepare for the job market.
Finally, this program will allow us to expand the use of our Teen Opportunities Collaborative (TOC)-an advisory group of teens that participate in program planning and implementation of teen pregnancy prevention and post-pregnancy services for teens. By exposing teen males to our pregnancy prevention and responsibility curriculum, positive role models and leadership opportunities, we believe the long-term benefit will be lower rates of teen pregnancies in our targeted service area.
Target Population Description
The men responsible for the more than 2,100 adolescent births in 1996 were 28% Caucasian, 26% Hispanic, 25% African American, 10% unknown/not disclosed, 8.8% Asian/Pacific Islander, 1.2% other and 0.7% percent Native American. While better than 40% of Sacramento's teenage mothers were minors-under age 18-60% of the fathers were adults age 18 and older; only 20% were in the same age range as the mothers (13-17 years).
Our program is targeting pre-sexually active youth and sexually active teens, age 15-19, with the broad goal of increasing their knowledge, skills and motivation to minimize their risk-factors of becoming teen fathers. The majority of our program participants currently reside in the Warren G. Thornton Youth Center. The remainder of our participants are teen fathers whose partners are participating in the WIC's parenting education course. We selected these target groups because (1) our program has the potential of preventing teen pregnancies; (2) we can educate teen fathers in responsible parenting and involve them with their children; and (3) they have a great many risk factors: high truancy and drop-out rates; low self-esteem; lack of knowledge concerning risk factors and pregnancy prevention; peer pressure and socio-economic background.
Recruitment and Selection Criteria for Youth Leadership Candidates
Instructor recommendations will be the primary means of recruiting and selecting candidates for the Youth Leadership Development strategy. We will be searching for teens that demonstrate the interest to advance their pregnancy prevention education beyond our curriculum. Teens with the skills to communicate what they learned in Project R.E.A.L. will be aggressively sought. We will rely upon the course instructor to identify teens to serve on our Teen Opportunities Collaborative. The candidates will sit on the advisory group of teens that participates in program planning and implementation. Teens with exceptional skills will have the opportunity to give presentations to their peers about preventing pregnancies and the importance of delaying sexual activity.
Benefit for Target Groups
The target populations will specifically benefit from our program by first being taught practical information on the consequences of teen pregnancy and how to reduce, minimize and eliminate their high risk behavior. Second, the target populations will learn the skills needed to become productive community members, good fathers and positive role models for other teens and/or fathers. Third, program participants will benefit from interacting with adult fathers, learning about their fathering experiences and participating in job shadowing activities. Fourth, male teens will have the opportunity to participate in our advisory group to help plan and implement our teen pregnancy prevention strategies. This experience will give them the chance to develop programs that are appropriate to their peers' gender, age group and background.
Program Plan
Prevention Education Services
Goal: To provide education designed to increase participants' knowledge of their roles and responsibilities in pregnancy prevention, family planning and responsible fatherhood.
Measurable Objectives
1. By June 30, 2002, 210-300 pre-sexually active and sexually active youth at the Warren G. Thornton Youth Center will complete a 12-hour teen pregnancy prevention curriculum. Seventy to eighty percent (70%-80%) of the participants will be able to identify three risk factors associated with teen pregnancy and 30% will state the intent to reduce at least one risk factor.
2. By June 30, 2000, 50-100 sexually active males and partners of pregnant/parenting teen mothers between the ages of 16-24 will receive education, information and referrals to increase their knowledge about positive parenting. Eighty percent (80%) will increase their knowledge, gain resources on ways to become a responsible father and positive role model. Thirty percent (30%) of the parents will state intent to increase involvement with their child(ren).
Needs Assessment
Sacramento County DHHS conducted a needs assessment in 1997 prior to initiating its male-oriented teen pregnancy prevention program, Project M.A.L.E. In the report, there was a notable absence of pregnancy prevention education in the juvenile justice system, the WIC program and at the Department of Human Assistance (DHA). Conversations between DHHS and the Warren G. Thornton Youth Center (probation department) confirmed that no such courses are taught to the male inmates-most of whom are already fathers or are at-risk of becoming fathers after their release. These young males need a comprehensive education related to responsible parenting and pregnancy prevention. Similarly, no parenting courses are taught to fathers whose partners are enrolled in the WIC program.
Key Components & Major Activities
The major activity of Project R.E.A.L. involves teaching our Sex Can Wait and parenting education curriculum to young males in the juvenile justice system, the WIC program and the Department of Human Assistance. The curriculum was selected for this target group because these young men are a high-risk population and no similar education is provided to them. Our curriculum has been used for two years in local schools and is already appropriate for their students' age ranges and cultural background.; our proposed target population is in the same age group and share similar cultural demographics.
Identification of Program Participants
Social service workers and counselors at the Thornton Youth Center, WIC and DHA offices will identify participants for our curriculum. They will be responsible for selecting high-risk adolescent boys and young men who are already fathers. The counselors will then enroll the young males in our program.
Responsiveness to Participants' Needs and Risk Factors
Project R.E.A.L.'s curriculum is designed to meet the needs and risk factors of the participants by giving them a comprehensive sexual education course that covers such issues as sexual responsibility, responsible fathering and risk factors of sexual activity. Outreach workers from one of our clinics will be available during two of the classes focusing on reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections. They will be able to provide referral options to the participants in the students require clinical services or additional information.
Curriculum, topics, sessions, settings
Our Sex Can Wait curriculum covers the following topics:
The curriculum is taught in classrooms and small groups. The classes are held once a week for twelve weeks. The pre-tests and post-tests are given in the first and last classes respectively.
Community Support & Project Development
Our Sex Can Wait curriculum was developed by DHHS staff, a health education consultant, our program evaluation consultant and several community based organizations (CBO) specializing in teen pregnancy prevention. Two of the CBOs participate in our Project M.A.L.E. by providing male responsibility and abstinence education to teens in South Sacramento.
Community Mobilization
Goal: To increase community awareness of our program and strengthen our coalition with other programs dedicated to teen pregnancy prevention.
Measurable Objectives
By June 30, 2002, 30,000 residents of Sacramento County will be exposed to our media campaign to increase awareness of male family planning services in Sacramento County.
Key components & Major Activities
Under this strategy, we will invite teen males to serve on the county's Teen Opportunity Collaborative (TOC). This is a collaboration of programs in Sacramento that are working on teen pregnancy prevention and post-pregnancy services for teens. We plan to have the teen members take a more active advisory role in the development, delivery and coordination of these services. This group will give us a great diversity of community representatives in this arena. Another component of this strategy involves a substantial media campaign to increase the public awareness of our teen pregnancy prevention program. Finally, TOC members will make presentations to community groups on the subject of teen pregnancy and its effects on young men and women.
Identification of Program Participants
The young men involved in Project R.E.A.L. that express an interest to further their pregnancy prevention education will be recruited to serve on the TOC. Our curriculum instructor will identify the teens most capable, and most prepared, to accept a leadership and advisory role on the coalition.
Responsiveness to Participants' Needs and Risk Factors
This strategy will address the participants' need for achievement and self-worth by improving teens' involvement with helping other young men, and adolescents, delay early/unintended fatherhood. They will also play a role in raising the community awareness of male involvement in pregnancies and child rearing. TOC members participate in all discussions on teen pregnancy and how to tailor new prevention activities for specific age groups, ethnicities and cultures. They will also be involved with the media campaign's development.
Community Support & Project Development
The TOC is a joint-venture between public and private teen pregnancy prevention programs in Sacramento County. Teen members meet regularly to discuss their organization's current projects. The TOC also serves as a forum to exchange ideas and develop additional prevention strategy collaborations.
Youth Leadership Development
Goal: To provide young men with the opportunity to assume leadership roles in Sacramento County and to promote male involvement and responsibility in pregnancy prevention
Measurable Objectives
1. By January 2000, develop a teen advisory group to participate in program planning and implementation.
2. By June 30, 2002, 30-60 teens will serve on the teen advisory group.
Needs Assessment
One component of our needs assessment involves having teens participate in peer groups to discuss pregnancy prevention and assist with program development. This proposed program will have a selected group of young men serving on a teen advisory group and our peer panel.
Key Components & Major Activities
Our focus in the Youth Leadership Development strategy is to train and develop young men as advocates to promote pregnancy prevention while involving them in community activities. Selected teens will serve on a teen advisory group established with the input of members from the Teen Opportunities Collaborative. Teens in our curriculum will be screened and selected to serve on the advisory group. Both of these groups participate in planning teen pregnancy prevention activities and giving presentations to groups of students at schools and community events. Teen advocates will actively participate in designing culturally and ethnically appropriate pregnancy prevention events for other young men.
Identification of Program Participants
The young men and adolescents involved in our curriculum that demonstrate the interest to further their pregnancy prevention education will be recruited to serve on the teen advisory groups. Please see Recruiting & Training below.
Responsiveness to Participants' Needs and Risk Factors
This strategy is designed to involve youth participants in a number of leadership capacities that will foster a sense of self-worth and achievement. The adult supervisors will value their opinions and suggestions and the teens will learn that the community values their thoughts at community presentations. The participants' involvement in this activity is intended to improve their self-esteem by seeking their opinions and showing them their contributions are valuable. Students with high self-esteem and elevated ambitions are less likely to expose themselves to high-risk behaviors (e.g., sexual activity); therefore, raising self-esteems is critical to the success of any pregnancy prevention program.
Recruiting & Training for Youth Leaders
We will rely upon the course instructor to identify teens to serve on our advisory groups and peer panel. Those students who exhibit the desire and skills to educate their peers on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies will be involved in our planning committees.
Community Support & Project Development
This strategy is a natural fit with the Teen Opportunities Collaborative. Please see "Community Mobilization" for a description of the TOC and the community's involvement with its development and operation.
Institutionalization of Male Involvement Programs
Goal: To institutionalize male involvement programs within the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services.
Measurable Objectives
By June 30, 2001, three county programs will integrate male-friendly/male-oriented services into their operations: WIC, Department of Human Assistance and Department of Health and Human Services-Clinical Services Branch.
Key Components & Major Activities
This strategy involves bringing three county teen pregnancy prevention programs together to act in a more efficient manner. We will form a planning group involving representatives from Sacramento County's WIC program, Department of Human Assistance, the Department of Health and Human Services. Each program currently has its own pregnancy prevention activities and its own unique target audience but, to date, there has been little coordination of resources between them. DHHS' Community Challenge Grant-funded Project M.A.L.E. teaches its Sex Can Wait curriculum to male students in South Sacramento middle schools and high schools. The WIC program and DHA teach their own parenting classes to women-mothers and expectant mothers-receiving public assistance. To date, they have not provided a parenting/male responsibility class for the women's partners. DHHS' Clinic Services Branch has outreach workers that teach family planning, birth control, pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted infection prevention courses in Sacramento middle, alternative and continuation schools.
The other departments' interventions differ from our proposed program in that they primarily target females or they offer a generalized sex education course to both genders in the schools. Only one county program targets young males with specific pregnancy prevention and male responsibility information. Our proposed program will teach the Sex Can Wait curriculum to teen boys in the Warren G. Thornton Youth Center-a setting not currently receiving pregnancy prevention education. Our program will also provide responsible fatherhood classes to young men whose female partners are enrolled in the WIC and DHA parenting courses.
Our objective is to identify gaps in our educational services and find opportunities where we can work together to provide a more comprehensive prevention program for young males and teen fathers.
Youth/Adult Partnerships
Goal: To increase the knowledge, skills and motivation of high-risk adolescent boys and young men in reducing teen pregnancies and in responsible parenting by exposing them to adult community role models.
Measurable Objectives
By June 30, 2002, 30-60 adult male role models will serve as fathering resources by presenting to male youth groups and offering job shadowing opportunities in some cases.
Needs Assessment
Our 1997 teen pregnancy prevention needs assessment recommends using programs that employ a multi-faceted curricula covering a variety of issues such as academic achievement, employment, communication skills, decision making, relationships and parenting skills. The proposed youth/adult partnership activities will address a number of these issues.
Key Components & Major Activities
Role modeling is the central activity in this strategy. Fathers from a variety of backgrounds, professions and cultures will be used as guest speakers for our program participants. These men will interact with the young teens to discuss their fathering experiences, their careers, the importance of staying in school, which academic subjects are important to master for career success and how having a child has affected their lives. In some cases, where students demonstrate a desire to learn more about a specific profession, job shadowing opportunities will be available.
Identification of Program Participants
All of the students participating in our Sex Can Wait curriculum will benefit from the role models' guest lectures. For job shadowing, the course instructor will identify the most well prepared teens and will work with the role model to arrange a mutually convenient time for the teen to visit his workplace.
Responsiveness to Participants' Needs and Risk Factors
This strategy will be responsive to students' needs by exposing them to positive community role models. Providing role models for young men will allow them to meet, and learn from, successful adult men while also helping them develop more mature social processing skills. This contact with male role models is designed to inspire the young men to delay sexual activity, become a responsible father-if they already have a child-and give increased attention to their education.
Role Model Recruitment & Screening
Program staff will recruit role models under this strategy. DHHS has access to a diverse group of community leaders through our advisory boards, program partnerships, and public coalitions. The men selected will represent a wide range of experiences and professions. Our staff will actively search for men who were teen fathers so they can provide their perspectives to the students.
Community Awareness of Male Involvement
Goal: To increase community and individual awareness regarding the importance of the roles and responsibilities of adolescent boys and young adult men in the prevention and reduction of teen pregnancies.
Measurable Objectives
1. By June 30, 2002, participate in a minimum of nine community events.
2. By June 30, 2002, deliver presentations on the importance of male involvement and pregnancy prevention to at least 30 youth organizations, parent groups, educators, etc.
Key Components & Major Activities
Our community awareness activities will consist primarily of participating in health fairs, community events and making presentations to parent groups in our target zip codes. A sample of the events include "The Worlds Largest Baby Shower" at Florin Mall, the Martin Luther King Expo and Health Fair, the Festival de la Familia and the Pacific Rim Festival. Our staff will co-plan and implement the "Baby Shower." These activities were selected because of the volume of people we can reach and the events are located are in areas with teen birth rates exceeding the state average-"hot spots." Other activities include giving presentations to community groups regarding pregnancy prevention and male responsibility. Staff will identify local organizations and schedule presentations on an ongoing basis.
Identification of Program Participants
The community health fairs are open to all interested parties regardless of gender or background. We will be offering activities at the events that appeal to adolescent boys and young men with the intent of encouraging them to participate with their friends or partners.
Responsiveness to Participants' Needs and Risk Factors
While the health fairs and events are open to all community members, we will be tailoring our education materials to young men and males adolescents. These items will:
Community Support & Project Development
Sacramento County DHHS annually partners with community based organizations to hold local health fairs and other community events. For the nonprofits that need assistance, we provide in-kind staff and clerical support during the planning process.
Linkages with Clinical Services
Goal: To increase program participants' access to low cost or no-cost clinical services through formalized referral procedures.
Measurable Objectives
By June 30, 2000, develop a referral protocol for use in formalizing linkages between at least five referral sources that may benefit our target population.
Key Components & Major Activities
To create standard referral protocols, our first step will be to identify potential referral sources. Second, we will meet with clinic representatives to clarify services that may benefit our target group. Discussions will be held at this stage to explore each clinic's willingness to formalize the referral process and our program. Third, a task force will draft the referral protocols and each member will work with their respective organization to gain the appropriate buy-in.
Identification of Program Participants
The program's health educator will make all the participants aware of the available clinic services and will provide each teen with a color-coded bookmark that provides the clinics' locations and services. (Please see below for a further description of the bookmark's purpose.) Teen males, at that point, can refer themselves to the clinics. By distributing bookmarks to every participant, the instructor will eliminate any anxiety the teen might have about asking for help.
Clinical Services
Available clinical services include:
Teens referred to one of our clinic partners will receive a color-coded bookmark for them to present to the staff when they visit the clinic. The bookmark will allow us to track how many teens actually go in for clinical services after the referral. When the young male visits the clinic, he will receive an incentive item-furnished by the clinic-for bringing the bookmark with him. Incentive items can range from condom key chains to pens to notebooks or whatever else the clinic has available.
Evaluation Plan
Plan Description & Key Activities
During the first funding period, a pre- and post- standardized survey tool will be designed to be utilized with the males in the Thornton Youth Center and the WIC and DHA programs. The standardized survey tool will assess knowledge, attitude and behavior change. Records will be maintained as to the number of males who participate in a curriculum/presentation as well as their evaluation of the curriculum's/presentation's effectiveness.
A baseline survey will be conducted on the boys at the Thornton Youth Center to determine the prevalence of fatherhood and high risk behaviors (poor academic attendance, low academic achievement, et. al.) as they relate to teen pregnancy. A follow up survey will be conducted at the end of the funding period to measure change in fathering a child and reduction in risk behaviors.
The males who participate in the 12-day curriculum will complete a pre- and post-curriculum survey to assess their change in knowledge concerning pregnancy prevention, risk factors and responsibilities of fathers in raising children.
Community and special events will be evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. Records will be maintained of all activities including: number of males reached, copies of media products developed and samples of all promotional items. Although social marketing strategies are difficult to evaluate, demographics of males reached will be assessed using current media target estimates. Males and agency participants will also evaluate the special events' effectiveness.
Statewide Evaluation, Activity Qualification, Participant Involvement/Performance Evaluation
The applicant, along with the evaluation consultant, will participate in the independent statewide evaluation of the Male Involvement Program which will be defined at a later time. Resources such as birth records are available via Sacramento County's Vital Statistics Unit. Epidemiological data and support staff are available via Sacramento County's Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit.
Participant involvement and performance evaluation will be conducted using a number of measurement techniques from attendance lists, pre- post-tests, questionnaires, satisfaction surveys and the like. Several of these tools are described further in this section.
Evaluation Tool Description, Collection Methods, Evaluation Staff
As described above, the evaluation tools will include:
Other evaluation/measurement tools will include sign-in sheets at all meetings, workshops, presentations to measure attendance and participation. Data from the local television and radio stations involved in our media campaign will allow us to measure approximately how many people in the Sacramento market were exposed to our pregnancy prevention messages. Satisfaction surveys will be used to assess the performance and effectiveness of role models and guest speakers. Memorandums of Understanding will document completion of some objectives such as creating linkages with clinic services and forming relationships with youth groups such as the Teen Opportunities Collaborative.
Most of our evaluation tools are activity-specific (e.g., pre- post-tests and satisfaction surveys) and will be conducted at the appropriate times before and/or after each event.
The applicant's current evaluation consultant has over twelve years of experience conducting research and evaluation and facilitating workshops on community needs assessment, strategic planning, long-range planning and community organizing. She also has extensive experience conducting risk behavior research on youth. The evaluation consultant is highly equipped and has adequate resources for data collection and reporting.
©
1999 The Grant Doctors / 10049 Yukon River Way, First Floor, Rancho
Cordova, CA 95670 / 916.638.7309