Empowering Youth African American Men in Fostering Healthy Relationships and Preventing Unplanned Pregnancy

Organization

ETR Associates

Project Team

Karin Coyle – Dual Principal Investigator

Pamela Anderson, PhD – Dual Principal Investigator and Project Director

James Walker, Curriculum Development Consultant

Project Summary

ETR has developed a sexual health module with follow-up support for young African American men. The module includes a series of sexual health-related lessons directly informed by the target population, parents/caregivers, and community advisors. The module is designed to be incorporated into an existing mentoring program, Omega Gents, facilitated by the largest black fraternity in the county. ETR’s partnership with Omega Psi Phi provides a stable existing infrastructure and opportunities for long-term stability and broad reach. It also represents a non-traditional setting for adolescent pregnancy prevention programming and an innovative avenue for reaching large groups of young men. Together, ETR and Omega Psi Phi have created an innovative and powerful approach to weaving pregnancy prevention programming into structured mentoring to address sexual health in tangent with other important social determinants, such as academic success and connectedness to school and caring adults.