CA Personal Responsibility Education Program (CA PREP)

New awards confirmed for ASH Ed RFA Program. For details, see Public Notice of Final Award, June 2, 2022.

The California Personal Responsibility Education Program (CA PREP) provides comprehensive sexual health education to adolescents via effective, evidence-based program models. The program focuses on how to pre-vent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Program services are engaging, nonjudgmental, medically accurate and tailored to the unique needs of youth participants and their communities. Services are offered in a range of settings, including schools, juvenile justice facilities, homeless shelters and foster care group homes. CA PREP activities also include community engagement and promotion of clinical linkages to youth-friendly reproductive health services.

Program Profile

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About Us

OUR GOAL: To promote and improve the
sexual and reproductive health of high-need youth populations.

WE SERVE: Youth ages 10-19. Target populations include youth who: reside, attend school or receive reproductive health services in a high-need geographic area; are homeless and/or runaway; attend an alternative or continuation school; are in or emancipated from foster care; are in the juvenile justice or probation system; identify as LGBTQ; are receiving treatment for mental health or substance abuse issues; have special needs; live in migrant farmworker families or are expectant/parenting female youth up to age 21.

SERVICE DELIVERY: Services are provided primarily by community-based organizations and clinics, as well as county health departments and county offices of education/superintendents of schools.

OUTCOMES: CA PREP curricula are evidence-based. They have been shown to change behavior, including delaying sexual activity, increasing condom or contraceptive use for sexually active youth, or reducing number of sexual partners. To improve the likelihood of achieving the same results, CA PREP agencies implement curricula with fidelity.

FINANCING: Federally funded and overseen by the Administration for Children & Families, Family & Youth Services Bureau.

Program Services

Small group discussion in classroom setting

Evidence-based Program Models

California’s PREP agencies use one or more of five models that best meet their populations’ needs:

Cuídate!
Making Proud Choices
Sexual Health & Adolescent Risk Prevention
Power Through Choices

Clinical Linkages:

The Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment (Family PACT) program is California’s approach to provide com-prehensive family planning services to eligible low -income individuals. CA PREP agencies partner with Family PACT and other youth-friendly health care providers in their local communities to increase youth access to sexual and reproductive health services.

Preparing for Adulthood:

In addition to education on preventing pregnancy and STIs, CA PREP also helps young people gain knowledge and skills that prepare them for adulthood. CA PREP agencies are required to integrate the first three adulthood preparation subjects listed out of the six PREP offerings:

Required:

Healthy Relationships: Examples include developing communication skills, building positive relationships, healthy and safe romantic involvement.
Healthy Life Skills: Examples include goal-setting, decision-making, negotiation skills, self-care
Adolescent Development: Examples include physical development and reproductive anatomy, identity formation

Optional:

Financial Literacy
Parent-Child Communication
Education & Career Success

Personal Responsibility Education Program

PREP is a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010. That same year, the California Department of Public Health’s Maternal, Child and Ado-lescent Health Division was awarded funds to implement the program. Local agencies began implementing CA PREP in De-cember 2012.
As of March 2016, CA PREP agen-cies have reached over 40,000 youth throughout California.
In Fiscal Year 2013-14, California exceeded its planned annual reach by 40%.
Across the state from program entry to exit, condom knowledge increased 44% among CA PREP youth served between September 2013 and July 2014. .

Where We Are

CA PREP funds 22 agencies in 20 counties with the highest need for adolescent sexual health education and services: Fresno, Humboldt, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sonoma, Tulare

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CA Personal Responsibility Education Program (CA PREP)

Program Profile

About Us