蜜柚直播

The is halting grant funding for its , created by the Obama administration in 2010. The funding affects 81 sites, including sites in 蜜柚直播 and Phoenix.

Officials with , a nonprofit 蜜柚直播 social-service agency, are trying to figure out how to move forward after the recent and unexpected news that, come June, the organization will lose the final two years of a $7 million, five-year federal grant to prevent teenage pregnancy.

The lost money amounts to $2.8 million for evidence-based programs that have been reaching 3,000 Southern 蜜柚直播 youths per year. Evidence-based refers to programs shown to improve measurable outcomes.

HHS emailed a statement to the Star that the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program has shown 鈥渧ery weak evidence of a positive impact鈥� and is proving to be a 鈥減oor use of more than $800 million in taxpayer dollars鈥� nationwide.

Federal officials also cited a recent that sexually transmitted diseases are at record highs as further evidence that the program was ineffective.

HHS says future decisions regarding the program will be guided by science and a 鈥渇irm commitment to giving all youth the information and skills they need to improve their prospects for optimal health outcomes.鈥�

But grant administrators in 蜜柚直播 and around the country say the programs have proven effective in continuing a national trend of reduced teen pregnancies.

Teen childbearing has 鈥渟ubstantial鈥� social and economic costs, , including lost tax revenue because of lower education attainment and income among teen moms.

The children of teen moms are more likely to drop out of high school, have more health problems, be incarcerated during adolescence and face unemployment as a young adult, the CDC reports.

Teen birth rates in the U.S. have dropped 8 percent since 2014, the CDC reports. But the rate is still substantially higher than in other industrialized nations, says the , a forum for the leaders of America鈥檚 largest metropolitan health departments.

Youth Council

The 蜜柚直播 teens wee quiet for a moment as they thought about the true or false question: A female can become pregnant even if a male does not ejaculate.

The teens, all members of the Child & Family Resources Youth Advisory Council, had divided themselves into two teams for a game they called Who Wants to be a Millionaire: the human sexuality version.

The statement is true because pre-ejaculation can cause pregnancy, one team shouted out, offering the correct answer first.

The teens went on to answer several more rounds of questions with a range of topics, including consent and healthy relationships.

While the teens were enthusiastic during the retreat at the Triangle Y Ranch Camp and Retreat Center north of 蜜柚直播, some were also feeling disappointed, they said privately. They had just learned that due to the federal funding blow, the future of the Youth Advisory Council was now uncertain.

The 13 members of the council play an integral role in those programs, acting as ambassadors and advising on curriculum content. They are able to tell grant administrators what鈥檚 going on with teens and sexuality, whether it鈥檚 sexting or obstacles to getting contraception.

鈥淲e start to learn what kids are wondering about that no one is talking about,鈥� said Richard Sosa, a facilitator of Guy Talk, one of the Child & Family Resources pregnancy-prevention programs.

鈥淭hey advise us on what is lacking,鈥� he said of the youth council.

In August, 20 leaders from the Big Cities Health Coalition, including Maricopa County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Bob England, wrote a to HHS Secretary Tom Price asking that the funding be restored. They wrote that cutting it short will halt important research and data analysis midway through the grant process.

Critics of the funding cuts are concerned the influence of top Trump appointees like Valerie Huber, the former president of an abstinence-only organization, are putting morality issues ahead of science.

Huber is now chief of staff to the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. In March, Huber in the publication The Hill that criticized the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, saying it 鈥渘ormalizes teen sex.鈥�

鈥淚n fact, teens report that these programs make them feel pressured to have sex. More pressured to have sex, in fact, than the pressure they feel from their dating partners,鈥� Huber wrote.

Big impact in Sunnyside

The grant money provides teen pregnancy-prevention and sex-education programs targeted to students in pockets of Southern 蜜柚直播 that have higher-than-average teen pregnancy rates.

Those programs include the sole sex education currently offered to students in the Sunnyside School District, a discussion-based program called Guy Talk for boys in Southern 蜜柚直播 and outreach in the San Xavier District of the Tohono O鈥檕dham Nation.

Sunnyside officials say they are doing their best to build capacity in order to sustain the programs on their own after the funding is pulled.

鈥淭he curriculum does a great job at framing and addressing the role that our young men and women have in communicating and respecting each other鈥檚 boundaries, as well as how to communicate when they are in uncomfortable, non-consenting situations,鈥� Sunnyside spokesperson Victor Mercado said.

鈥淭hese are skills that will serve them well in college and in early adulthood, and even in navigating abusive relationships, where sex can at times be a form of control,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f our students don鈥檛 have the appropriate refusal skills, this may lead to unwanted pregnancies.鈥�

Called Mobilization for Positive Futures, the grant money has funded programs called 鈥淢aking a Difference鈥� and 鈥淩educing the Risk鈥� for eighth- and ninth-grade students, as well as 鈥淏e Proud, Be Responsible, Be Protective鈥� for Sunnyside teens who are pregnant or already have a child.

Disappointment

The Child & Family Resources Youth Advisory Committee, which advises the agency on its teen pregnancy-prevention curriculum, spoke about the funding cuts during their August retreat at the Triangle Y.

鈥淚t makes me pretty sad, honestly. I am disappointed,鈥� said 17-year-old member Miranda Escobar, a senior at 蜜柚直播 High Magnet School.

鈥淜ids need information and resources to help themselves,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get much information until I joined the Youth Advisory Council. My family members gave me books.鈥�

Some of the grant money 鈥� $541,339 per year 鈥� went to the Guy Talk program that encouraged frank discussion among Southern 蜜柚直播 boys, which is a huge need in our culture, said Ysabelle Garcia, also a 17-year-old 蜜柚直播 High senior and advisory council member.

鈥淭here is so much toxic masculinity in our world,鈥� Garcia said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good for guys to know how to respect themselves, to have good relationships.鈥�

Most of the sex education Garcia recalls having in school was abstinence-only, which she says 鈥渋sn鈥檛 realistic.鈥� The advisory council has opened her eyes, she said.

鈥淚 learned about consent on the internet, and that is not a reliable source,鈥� she said.

At the youth retreat, Garcia gave the teens a class in anatomy, among other topics. She also gave a lesson in consent.

鈥淚t has to be clear, enthusiastic permission,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t can鈥檛 be mumbled. The other person has to be sober and capable.鈥�

Giovanni Rodriguez, a 14-year-old Palo Verde High School freshman, went through the pilot for Guy Talk after he finished eighth grade in 2016 and said the program鈥檚 social interaction stood out most. It wasn鈥檛 like a typical class, he said.

鈥淲e did things in groups most of the time,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 learned things like healthy relationships, safe sex, STDs and how to prevent from getting them, and birth-control methods.鈥�

Looking forward

Child & Family Resources will do its best to work with the resources it has and hopes the cuts don鈥檛 translate into job loss, said Marie Fordney, its senior director of prevention programs.

One immediate obstacle: Fordney鈥檚 team was gathering data from participating students in Guy Talk as part of a five-year study to measure its effectiveness.

The program aims to reduce teen pregnancies by empowering young men to define masculinity for themselves, beyond societal expectations, and to take an active role in healthy relationships, birth control and consent.

鈥淲e won鈥檛 be able to complete the study,鈥� Fordney said.

Moving forward, one thing Fordney鈥檚 agency will not do is an abstinence-only-until-marriage program. It鈥檚 better to have no sex education at all, she said.

Among other things, such programming alienates youths who are not heterosexual and youths who have had sexual experiences, including experiences that were not by choice. Those kids just end up feeling ashamed, she said.

The loss of funding 鈥渋s a really big deal,鈥� she said, 鈥渆specially since one of the grants has an impact on an entire school district.鈥�