Native American teen pregnancies are the highest among all race and ethnicity groups, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Teen pregnancy has long term effects on teen parents and their children. For example, pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to high school dropout rates among girls. Additionally, children of teenage mothers are more likely to have lower school achievement and to drop out of high school.
Meanwhile, the University of Montana (UM) center recently secured a $7.1 million grant to help address these troubling outcomes. The U.S. Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health and Office of Population Affairs awarded the five-year grant to UM’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development.
Program to Operate in Three States
In Montana, Native youth who access health care at All Nations Health Center in Missoula ill receive culturally appropriate interventions. The Rocky Boy Health Center on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation will also deliver the program.
“We are committed to advancing health equity across the state,” said Kate Chapin, executive director of the UM center. “This new partnership with Johns Hopkins University will provide Montana with the tools and expertise to better serve one of the most vulnerable populations in Montana – American Indian youth.”
The new teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease prevention program will also be available in in Arizona and New Mexico. While working with the Navajo Nation, UM will implement the program at summer camps and in reservation school districts.
“Focused education for this high-risk group is going to benefit their families and our entire community,” said Sandra Friede, a public health nurse at the Rocky Boy Health Center, which provides health and mental health care to its tribal community.
Above all, the UM center will provide the evidence-based programs for young Natives in Montana, Arizona and New Mexico. Evidence-based programs generally have one or more outcome evaluations that demonstrated effectiveness of the program. In addition to UM, the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Indigenous Health will partner on the grant.
Program to Educate Youth on Teen Pregnancy Prevention
“This multiyear, multistate prevention grant will provide transformative and foundational infrastructure from which American Indian youth will be supported, served and valued within their tribal culture,” said Dr. Kristen Rogers, the UM center’s principal investigator on the grant, which will create a new program titled Native Youth POWER.
She said the multistate project will focus on reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates among Native youth, which consistently are the highest rates of any ethnic minority group.
“We will provide training on pregnancy prevention, spacing and delay, including sexually transmitted infection prevention and intervention,” Rogers said. “A main goal of this project is to reduce pregnancies in Native youth while respecting cultural norms of family and tribal connectedness.”
Skye McGinty is executive director of the All Nations Health Center, which serves more than 18 tribes throughout Montana. She said, “We are thrilled to partner with the University of Montana, the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Montana and the Navajo Nation on culturally appropriate reproductive education. Decolonizing our bodies starts with the kind of empowerment this grant will provide for Native youth and their families.”
Rogers said the efforts will employ a community-engaged, participatory approach to program implementation. The program will address teen pregnancy and STD prevention with a foundational methodology in trauma-informed care and positive youth development. Community and youth advisory boards within each setting will assist UM and Johns Hopkins staff. The boards will help overseeing, implementing and monitoring all project activities.
Learn More
To learn more visit the UM’s Center for Children, Families and Workforce Development and John Hopkins University’s Center for Indigenous Health.
