The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Fund provides financial support for current initiatives that address teen pregnancy prevention and unsafe sexual practices of teens in Washington County, MD.

Grant applications for the 2023 Teen Pregnancy Prevention Fund will be accepted until August 4th.

Grant Requirements:

Grants are typically directed to programs and education specifically targeting a decrease in teen pregnancy and unsafe sexual practices in teens. Preference may be given to organizations or programs that offer education and programming to parents of pre-teens and teens.

Suggested grant amount is about $600. However, requests for other amounts will not be disqualified. Applicant organizations must be based in and primarily serving Washington County, Maryland, and have a current 501(c)(3) determination from the IRS. Organizations may apply for funding for more than one program; however, each program requires a separate grant application.

Why care about teen pregnancy?:

Washington County’s vital statistics demonstrate that our county has consistently ranked as having the 3rd or 4th highest teen birth rate in Maryland for many years. While the National and State and Washington County teen birth rates have shown dramatic improvement there is still much to be done to impact this issue.

“Compared to women who delay childbearing, teen mothers are less likely to complete high school and more likely to end up on welfare. The children of teen mothers are at significantly increased risk of low birth weight and pre-maturity, mental retardation, poverty, growing up without a father, welfare dependency, poor school performance, insufficient health care, inadequate parenting, and abuse and neglect.”

Parents Influence:
“Parents have a very important influence on whether their teenagers become pregnant or cause a pregnancy. Parents need to know that when it comes to young people’s decisions about sex, their influence has not been lost to peers and popular culture. They are powerful and they can use this power in sound, helpful ways.” Organizations or programs that offer educational seminars, workshops and printed materials that provide parents practical information about what they can do to help their children delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy are needed in Washington County.

2022 Recipients:
Boys and Girls Club of Washington County
Community Free Clinic of Washington County

“Our teen pregnancy program [SMART Girls] serves kids aged 8 through 18, and there’s a whole course on pregnancy prevention. Knowing is half the battle. Exposing kids to that information gets them there,” said Boys and Girls Club of Washington County’s Development Director EJ Fuller. He also shared information on how these funds will also support BGCWC’s Passport to Manhood, which promotes and teaches responsibility in boys aged 8 through 18.

Community Free Clinic of Washington County received their grant to support Youth Overcoming Life’s Obstacles (YOLO), a reproductive health program that’s just one of the services Washington County teens and young adults are in the most need of. This further’s the Clinic’s mission to maintain a program that helps with family planning through access to birth control, free health resources, and testing. This program’s outreach involves attending community-wide health events, fairs, and YMCA community functions, as well as providing informational flyers at community health centers and with our local healthcare system, Meritus Medical Center.

“Our program sees 13-24 year olds; it’s a sexual reproductive health [program]. We do pregnancy testing, we do birth control, we do STI treatments, because not only is teen pregnancy up again, but STIs are as well. We do everything sexual health related,” said Community Free Clinic of Washington County Executive Director Nicole Houser.

“These are fund that were started when the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition became Teens Have Choices, and when that ultimately folded, these funds remained which helped to create this fund so that the issue of teen pregnancy prevention could remain an important one,” said Lourie during the awarding of these grants.