The Pregnancy Assistance Fund: Launching Programs to Support Expectant and Parenting Youth
Evidence | Publications

The Pregnancy Assistance Fund: Launching Programs to Support Expectant and Parenting Youth

Published: Feb 12, 2016
Publisher: Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Health
Human Services Family Support Strengthening Families and Responsible Fatherhood Youth Development Research and Evaluation Evaluation Design Policy Analysis
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Authors

Ann E. Person

Elizabeth Clary

Susan Zief

Katie Adamek

Valerie Caplan

Julie Worthington

Key Findings

Key Findings:

  • The 17 PAF grantees offered services through 24 distinct programs, implemented by 123 provider organizations; across all programs and providers, the grantees expected to serve nearly 30,000 youth.
  • Grantees built multi-component programs to address participants’ comprehensive needs. Programs typically focused on parenting skills and often involved intensive case management and referrals, sometimes in combination with a host of other topics and services.
  • Multi-component approaches require a high degree of service coordination, prompting grantees to build partnerships across different sectors and bureaucracies as well as with an array of provider organizations. Grantees saw such coordination as necessary for providing expectant and parenting youth with the full range of services they require and as a way to sustain services after the grant period.

This report is the first systematic description of the Pregnancy Assistance Fund (PAF) grant program’s efforts to support expectant and parenting youth. It examines early grant implementation among the 17 states and Indian tribes awarded PAF grants in 2013. The study team gathered and analyzed data from two sources: (1) a standardized review of grant applications, and (2) telephone interviews with administrators representing the 17 grantees. Drawing upon systematic analysis of both data sources, this report describes how grantees developed their strategic approaches and the contextual factors that influenced their decisions. It examines how grantees’ design choices address the wide-ranging needs of expectant and parenting youth and how grantees’ administrative structures support program implementation. It also provides a set of profiles summarizing each grantee’s specific program approach.

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