Late last week we awarded two new community-based contracts for the new Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) funds: BJ Youth Foundation and Mariposa Community Health Center. PREP is the new federal program from the Affordable Care Act that requires programs educate adolescents on both abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.  This was our 2^nd Request for Grant Applications for this grant.  We awarded four contracts last fall, but still had funding unobligated and some high-risk and under-served areas.  We now have now 6 contractors under this federally funded program: Pima Prevention Partnership, Arizona Youth Partnership, Pinal Hispanic Council, Worthy Institute, BJ Youth Foundation, and Mariposa Community Health Center.  

These new projects augment federal Abstinence Education contracts that began last July.  Pima Prevention Partnership, Arizona Youth Partnership, Catholic Charities, and National Community Health Partners were awarded contracts and will be serving an additional 14,000 youth and parents in 20 communities throughout the state.