The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) is pleased to announce that it has awarded more than $1.4 million to four recipients of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI). These awards will expand the teen pregnancy prevention program at MDCH, which currently includes the Michigan Abstinence Program, Child and Adolescent Health Center Program, Michigan Model for Health Program and Family Planning Services.

The goal of the TPPI is to reduce the rate of teen pregnancy in Michigan. The new awardees will provide comprehensive evidence-based pregnancy prevention programs to youth 10-18 years of age that target factors that lead to the delayed initiation of sex as well as promoting and encouraging abstinence as the safest choice.

Each recipient will receive about $50,000 through the end of the 2008-2009 fiscal year. They will then receive $100,000 each every fiscal year through Sept. 30, 2012. The newly funded TPPI awardees include:

1. Baldwin Family Health Care

2. District Health Department #10

3. Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan

4. Planned Parenthood of West and Northern Michigan

Each grantee is expected to serve between 250 and 1,000 youth per year, develop and/or maintain an advisory council, which is representative of the diversity of the community, implement programming that impacts the knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs proven to lower rates of teen pregnancy and provide a minimum of 14 hours of structured programming per youth.

The rate of teen pregnancy (per 1,000) in Michigan has been declining since at least 1996. The rate for 10-14 year olds declined from 1.8 in 1996 to 1.0 in 2006. For 15-17 year olds, the rate declined from 47.0 in 1996 to 28.2 in 2006. Overall, Michigan has had a 44 percent decrease for 10-14 year olds and a 40 percent decrease for 15-17 year olds from 1996-2006.

While this is good news, recently released national statistics show that the teen birth and pregnancy rates have increased for the past two consecutive years for the U.S. as well as Michigan. These statistics have overshadowed the continuous decline in pregnancy rates since 1996. While this decline is evidence that the teen pregnancy prevention programs have been working, as long as there are unintended teen pregnancies and births occurring, there is more work to be done. MDCH will be closely monitoring future trends to determine whether the recent increase in teen births and pregnancy rates is an isolated occurrence or the beginning of a reversal in our downward trend.

These awards serve to strengthen and grow a successful statewide teen pregnancy prevention program. For more information on the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, please contact Kara Anderson, Michigan Department of Community Health at (517) 373-3864 or andersonk10@michigan.gov.