Gents: Empowering Young African American Men

Funder

Texas A&M Innovative Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (Office of Adolescent Health)

PI(s)

Karin Coyle and Pamela Anderson

Description

ETR was awarded an innovation sub-grant from Texas A&M as a part of the Office of Adolescent Health innovation funding to develop a sexual health module implemented as part of a mentoring program for African American young men. The sexual health module promotes topics such as healthy relationships, respect, sexual consent, correct and consistent use of condoms, supporting a partner’s use of highly effective birth control, sexual boundaries, and empowering young men to make informed choices to navigate sexual risk in light of future goals. ETR has partnered with the Oakland Chapter of Omega Psi Phi, the largest black fraternity in the country and developer of the mentoring program, to inform, develop and provide feedback on the module. This powerful and innovative programmatic approach weaves pregnancy prevention programming into structured mentoring as a way to address important social determinants not typically addressed in pregnancy prevention programs, including academic success, connectedness to school and access to caring adult relationships.