Opportunities Beyond the Narrative: An Intervention for Justice-Involved Youth

Urban Strategies was funded by a Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) grant from the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct a rigorous evaluation of a TPP program, Project With, to determine the impact of this innovative literary-based curriculum for incarcerated and other justice-involved youth. Project With is a 12-lesson literary-based curriculum, typically delivered in six weekly sessions, with each session having two one-hour long lessons and a meal with facilitators in between the two lessons. Each lesson includes a discussion of selected literary works, including poetry, short stories, and excerpts from films and other videos. The intervention shows potential to promote optimal health and reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among incarcerated and other justice-involved youth. This intervention builds upon a former TPP grant. A formative evaluation of the intervention with OPA funding was carried out from 2018-2020. The formative evaluation showed that the curriculum, which explores healthy and unhealthy relationships as they appear within literary works and is facilitated by a caring mentor using a culturally attuned approach, deeply engages incarcerated youth.

This study involves youth aged 15-19 who are incarcerated/justice-involved and who are at high risk for involvement in risky sexual behaviors, including teen pregnancy. The findings from this study are intended to contribute to research on teen pregnancy, sexual health, and healthy relationships. The population of justice-involved/incarcerated youth face historical, structural, and environmental factors that bring about distressing sexual health disparities. Nationwide, 20% of incarcerated youth already have a child or are either pregnant or expecting a child they fathered (Sedlak & Bruce, 2016). Rates of teen fatherhood for incarcerated youth are seven times higher than their peers, and rates of teen motherhood for incarcerated girls are one-third higher than national averages. Along with disparities related to teen pregnancy, incarcerated youth have high rates of trauma, thus any intervention for these youth must be trauma-informed. A 2010 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) report on the needs of incarcerated youth found 70% of all youth had experienced at least one childhood trauma, and 30% had experienced physical abuse, sexual abuse, or both. This study was designed to contribute to our understanding of what works with this population and to strengthen our knowledge base around developing and implementing a sexual health and personal relationships program.

The study will roll out in waves. During each wave a cohort of 8-12 youth from each facility will participate in Project With. After Urban Strategies implements Project With in a given facility, they will wait a period of time (e.g., one week to several months) and will then implement the program with a new cohort of youth. Using this design, each facility will participate in the study multiple times.