MEDIA ADVISORY | RENE BIBBY | (520) 321-3394

Tucson Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition Awarded $4.3 Million

to Build Sex Education Programming in Sunnyside School District
Tucson, Arizona With some of the highest teen birth rates and sexually transmitted
infections in the United States, Arizona is facing a public health and educational crisis. Four local
nonprofitsTeen Outreach Pregnancy Services, Planned Parenthood Arizona, Sunnyside Unified
School District, and Child & Family Resourcesmobilized as the Tucson Teen Pregnancy
Prevention Coalition (TTPPC) to implement effective, evidence-based, medically accurate,
responsible relationships and sexuality education to middle and high school students in the
Sunnyside district.
We are thrilled to be able to work with our partners at the TTPPC to finally be able to
bring much needed sex education resources to the Sunnyside community, said Daniel
Hernandez, President of the Sunnyside School District Governing Board. We hope that this
success will lead to other districts following our lead to ensure that the students of Arizona have
the information they need to make informed choices.
This July, the US DHHS, Office of Adolescent Health awarded the coalition $4.3 million,
over five years, to train Sunnyside staff, primarily health and science teachers, to teach
abstinence-based sexuality education. By the spring of 2016, parents in the Sunnyside district
will have the option of allowing their children to receive this important health information. The
middle school Making a Difference and high school Reducing the Risk curricula are both
evidence-based and age-appropriate curricula that encourage abstinence as a first choice while
also providing information about methods of protection. Pregnant or parenting teens will be able
to participate in a teen-parent focused program Be Proud, Be Responsible, Be Protective. By
2020, all programs will be self-sustaining within the district. The funding also supports an
independent outcomes evaluation of the program by Tucson based LeCroy & Milligan Associates,
Inc.

Over 100 studies have shown that high-quality sexuality education helps young people
delay the initiation of sex, and use condoms and contraception when they do become sexually
active. These are the very behaviors that are necessary to preventing pregnancy. In 2010, public
spending on teen childbearing in the United States totaled an estimated $9.4 billion. Investments
in effective teen pregnancy prevention programs are not only providing young people with the
information and skills they need to make healthy decisions; they are also good for taxpayers.

Media inquires contact Rene Bibby at (520) 321-3394 or (520) 591-8795

Tucson Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition, offering teacher training and technical assistance,
and implementation of evidence-based education to youth