Addressing Teen Pregnancy Risks for Youth Living in Out-of-Home Care: Implementing POWER Through Choices 2010

POWER Through Choices 2010 is a comprehensive sexual health education curriculum designed to address the unique risks of youth in foster care and other out-of-home care settings. It aims to build the goal-setting, communication, and decision-making skills of high-risk youth, which in turn will help empower them to make healthy choices as they work toward their goals. The curriculum is being evaluated as part of the national multiyear Evaluation of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Approaches. This report examines and draws lessons from the implementation of POWER Through Choices in 44 group homes in Oklahoma, California, and Maryland. Overall, the curriculum was implemented largely as planned in these states, and benefitted from an emphasis on thorough and ongoing training and technical assistance for staff. Sessions were well-attended—over four-fifths of youth attended at least 8 of 10 sessions. Feedback from youth was also positive—over 8 in 10 youth reported that POWER Through Choices was either "very helpful" or "extremely helpful" to them.