Final Impacts of the POWER Through Choices Program

This report presents the final impact findings from a large-scale demonstration project and evaluation of POWER Through Choices (PTC), a comprehensive sexual health education curriculum designed specifically for youth in foster care, the juvenile justice system, and other out-of-home care settings. Prior research indicates that youth in out-of-home care are at particularly high risk for teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and associated sexual risk behaviors (Dworsky and Courtney 2010). However, many of these youth report difficulty accessing reproductive health information and services (Freundlich 2003; Crottogini et al. 2008), as well as relatively low levels of knowledge about reproductive health and methods of protection (Hudson 2012). PTC is one of the only comprehensive sexual health education curricula designed to address the needs and risks specific to this population.