Implementing a Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Program in the US South: Can Scaling-up Evidence-Based Programs Create Meaningful Change?

Introduction: Be Proud! Be Responsible! Memphis! (BPBR! Memphis!) is an evidence-based teenage pregnancy prevention program in Memphis, Tennessee and the surrounding Shelby County area. According to the American Community Survey (2015), 57.9% of the population in Shelby County is Black or African American and 40.2% are White or Caucasian with 33.3% of children living below the poverty level in the past 12 months. While participants in BPBR! Memphis! since August 2015 have been demographically diverse, a majority (83%) have been Black or African American and have lived in the central area of Shelby County where teenage pregnancy and STD rates are higher than in the surrounding suburbs.

Major program goals include scaling-up in order to reach over 18,000 adolescents by 2020 and building program capacity through partnerships to create community-wide and systems-level changes. In order to meet these goals, the program is teaching in a larger number of schools, nurturing strong relationships within school systems (public and charter), community organizations, and the juvenile justice system while targeting youth living in high risk zip codes where teenage pregnancy and STDs among 15-19 year olds are prevalent.

Methods: In order to measure program success, BPBR! Memphis! has participants complete a pretest, posttest, and evaluation of the class. Additionally, to assess efforts related to program reach and scaling-up, zip code mapping is utilized to help in understanding where the students live, where they go to school, and to ensure the program is implemented in high risk zip codes where the program is crucial to curb teen pregnancy and STD rates.

Results: Since August 2015, the program has reached over 6,000 adolescents in Shelby County and a majority of these students live in the central area of Shelby County where teenage pregnancy and STD rates are higher. Poverty rates are also higher in these areas. At posttest, all knowledge questions had an increase in the number of students answering them correctly. Likert scale questions demonstrated many beliefs and attitudes surrounding HIV and STD transmission, safer sex methods, and condom use were positively affected.

Conclusions: BPBR! Memphis! is continuing to work toward its goal of reaching over 18,000 adolescents by 2020 through scaling-up and targeting zip codes with high rates of teenage pregnancy, STDs, and poverty in order to ensure students are given the information and skills needed to make responsible sexual decisions and effect community-wide change.