The Missouri Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) contracts IPP to serve as external evaluators for the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Title V Sexual Risk Avoidance Education program (SRAE). Missouri’s PREP and SRAE programs are part of a national initiative to reduce teenage pregnancy rates using evidence-based programs.
Implementation began in the spring of 2012, and since then, programs evaluated by MOTPP have reached 6,305 Missouri youth through comprehensive and abstinence-based sexual health education programs. In the academic year 2020-2021, 22 contractors implemented 75 programs in regions across Missouri that are at high risk for teen pregnancy. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, the IPP evaluation team has collaborated with facilitators, coordinators, and DHSS to adapt programs to ensure participants have the information they need to make informed decisions about their personal and sexual health. The IPP evaluation team and their DHSS partners in the Adolescent Health division are entering the eleventh year of the program. The team is encouraged by the longitudinal health education data collected through this program and the impact the program has had on Missouri youth.