The federal Office of Adolescent Health has announced seven new grant awards to serve North Carolina youth. The projects are part of a series of competitively funded projects awarded nationwide, and are aimed at curbing teen pregnancies over the next five years.

SHIFT NC (Sexual Health Initiatives For Teens) received funds for two new initiatives serving 11 counties:

• Every Teen Counts will boost service providers’ capacity to implement trauma-informed, evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs for youth in foster care and youth in juvenile detention centers in nine counties in northeastern North Carolina, including Bertie, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Nash, Northampton, Vance, Warren, and Wilson Counties.

• North Carolina Youth Connected will create community-wide initiatives to address teen pregnancy in Onslow and Cumberland Counties. In Onslow County this project will build on initial planning and readiness work funded by the Duke Endowment.

These two initiatives are largely built on lessons-learned through the Gaston Youth Connected Initiative, SHIFT NC’s community-wide initiative in Gaston County, funded by the Office of Adolescent Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 2010 through September 2015. That initiative cut teen pregnancy rates by nearly 40% in just three years.

Other North Carolina Projects

Five additional organizations were awarded grants to address teen pregnancy in North Carolina. The NC Department of Health and Human Services was awarded funds to implement a community-wide teen pregnancy initiative in Edgecombe, Richmond, and Graham Counties.  In addition, four groups were awarded prestigious grants to rigorously evaluate promising programs, including:

• The Center for Supportive Schools will test a school-based peer education program for high school students in Bertie, Scotland, and Duplin Counties.
• The Children’s Home Society received an award to evaluate Wise Guys for young men in grades 7 through 9 in Iredell-Statesville Schools.
• The Cabarrus Health Alliance will evaluate Taking Responsible Actions in Life (TRAIL), a school-based intervention for 9^th graders in Cabarrus County.
• New Orleans-based Policy and Research, LLC will evaluate Trauma Informed Approach for Adolescent Sexual Health (TIAASH), and intensive, trauma-informed counseling intervention for foster care youth in out-of-home care at Barium Springs.

View the full list of awardees on the Office of Adolescent Health's website. 

Congratulations to everyone funded! These initiatives keep North Carolina on the cutting edge of our field, and help make North Carolina a place where young people grow up healthy! 

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Finley, Director of Strategic Communications, (919) 749-7309 (mobile) or (919) 226-1880 (office)