Teen Pregnancy Prevention Tier 2 Rigorous Evaluation Cooperative Agreements

The Office of Population Affairs (OPA), in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, administers the Title X family planning, Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP), and Embryo Adoption Awareness and Services programs. OPA advises the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Health on a wide range of reproductive and adolescent health topics. The TPP program was established in 2010 with a Congressional mandate to fund medically accurate and age-appropriate programs to reduce teen pregnancy and associated risk behaviors. The purpose of the TPP Tier 2 Rigorous Evaluation Cooperative Agreements is to fund rigorous impact and implementation evaluation of promising approaches for preventing teen pregnancy and related risk behaviors. Through the awards, OPA aims to address the changing needs of youth and communities by increasing the number of programs available that are proven to reduce teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and behavioral risk factors underlying teen pregnancy, and to disseminate those interventions that demonstrate effectiveness. OPA is especially interested in funding rigorous evaluations of promising interventions in populations and settings with great need and those that demonstrate significant health disparities, such as, but not limited to, interventions in juvenile justice or foster care/child welfare settings, with expectant and parenting youth, youth with disabilities, with homeless youth, or for caregivers. A wide range of adolescent health innovations may be proposed for study under this funding opportunity, such as, but not limited to, programs, curricula, clinical interventions, and technological interventions. Promising interventions to be evaluated under the funding opportunity are expected to have compelling, positive preliminary evidence from previous research, a well-described theory of change, and intervention materials that are already developed. The promising intervention should also have demonstrated support from participants and be a good fit for the intended population and setting proposed for the evaluation. Funded recipients are expected to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of the promising intervention with the most robust possible design that is feasible for the intervention and setting. All funded recipients will be expected to participate in OPA evaluation technical assistance. Recipients will be expected to conduct high-quality implementation of the intervention by maintaining fidelity, quality assurance, high dosage, intervention saturation, appropriate materials, staff coordination and management, qualified facilitators, participant engagement and satisfaction, and stakeholder support. Promising interventions proposed for evaluation under this funding are expected to have the potential to scale and be replicated by others in the adolescent health field. Funded recipients will be expected to disseminate their evaluation findings and lessons learned through publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at professional conferences.