At Bethany Christian Services in Grand Rapids, MI, a teen pregnancy prevention session can feel like a United Nations meeting.
Funded by a Competitive Abstinence Education Grant from the Family and Youth Services Bureau’s Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, Bethany’s program for youth in Michigan’s child welfare system serves many refugees from Central America, Africa and other parts of the globe.
“There are so many youth from so many different countries and so many interpreters,” says Tiffany Clarke, who supervises the program. “There’s this energy and youth are raising their hands and trying to get their interpreters to work faster so they can participate.”
Held in child welfare facilities and afterschool sites in Kalamazoo, Holland, Grand Rapids and Detroit, the 16-week program offers refugee and U.S.-citizen youth a carefully calibrated set of programming and services. Youth participate in an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention curriculum called Teen Outreach Program, or TOP, plus a trauma-informed curriculum created by Bethany staff. The mostly 14- to 18-year-olds (and a few older youth) also benefit from a host of social services and referrals offered by Bethany.
For Foster and Refugee Youth, a Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program That Acknowledges Trauma
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