Lessons Learned from Implementing Teen Pregnancy Prevention Intervention in African American Faith-Based Organizations

             The Southern Nevada Teen Pregnancy Prevention Project (SN-TPPP) has been providing comprehensive sexual education in African American faith-based organizations in Las Vegas throughout the past four years. SN-TPPP is a collaborative project in which the University of Nevada Las Vegas Center for Health Disparities Research is partnering with various faith-based organizations in the African American community to reduce the numbers of teenagers in the community that become pregnant. These four years have been educational for the students that attended the sessions and for those tasked with bringing this information into the community. During the time that this program has been implemented, Nevada went from being number two in the nation in teen pregnancy down to number four.

            We have found it helpful to host our interventions on evenings or times when the youth group is already meeting. Having someone from the church is very important to help facilitate the implementation of the intervention. This person is critical to helping maintain and build the relationship between the participants and the project team. Another strategy that has been successful is having the teens that are already enrolled recruit their friends.  

            The challenges in bringing this intervention into faith-based organizations have been manageable.  We have learned invaluable lessons about communication with pastors, parents and teens as well as understanding decision-making processes within faith-based organizations. The numerous lessons learned during the development and implementation of this program could be beneficial for further collaboration between faith-based organizations and community health projects.