MENLO PARK, Calif. – The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has awarded a $575,000 grant designed to reduce teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases among at-risk youth in the San Francisco Bay Area. The grant was made through the Foundation’s new Regional Grants Program, which will make grants to assist disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area.
The grant to ETR Associates (Education Training and Research Associates) of Scotts Valley will help design and rigorously evaluate a local health clinic program that will provide follow up education and case management to young people who use medical clinic services. ETR Associates will partner with San Francisco-based New Generation Health Center to implement and evaluate this program.
“The Hewlett Foundation is committed to finding innovative solutions to problems like hunger, homelessness and lack of access to quality services that continue to take a terrible toll on our community,” said Foundation vice president Susan Bell. “Much of that work focuses on improving opportunities for youth, and this grant, which is designed to reduce teen pregnancies, is a good example of how we hope to address these problems.”
“Young people who use clinic services are sometimes lost after the initial contact in the clinic,” said Douglas Kirby of ETR Associates. “With high-risk youth, this missed opportunity for follow-up education and services often has serious consequences. This funding will allow us to evaluate the impact of a system to track clinic patients as effectively as possible.”
About ETR Associates
ETR Associates is a Bay Area organization founded in 1981 to improve the well-being of individuals, families, and communities by providing leadership, educational resources, training and research in health promotion with an emphasis on sexuality and health education. ETR will partner with New Generation Health Center, a San Francisco-based reproductive health clinic that serves youth ages 12-24 from all over Northern California.
About the Hewlett Foundation’s New Regional Grants Program
The Hewlett Foundation’s Regional Grants Program expands upon the Foundation’s ongoing commitment to provide assistance to disadvantaged communities in the Bay Area. The Foundation has recently made significant grants to prominent Bay Area partner groups that specifically address this priority. This year, the Foundation made a $2 million, three-year commitment to REDF, a non-profit organization that is taking a bold approach to solving poverty and homelessness problems in the Bay Area. REDF supports for-profit ventures that create jobs and opportunity for low income members of the community. The Foundation has also invested $750,000 in a partnership with the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation to address the housing and support needs of at-risk foster youth who lose their benefits when they turn eighteen. These young people are at serious risk of homelessness, unemployment, jail, and mental health problems.
For a complete list of Hewlett Foundation grants, go to http://www.hewlett.org/grants.