Child Crisis Center of El Paso, Inc.- No Kidding program

The solicitation invites applicants to propose local initiatives that provide juvenile participants training and job skills in order to successfully enter the workforce, and is authorized under 42 USC 5665-5667.

For the past thirty years, the Child Crisis Center of El Paso (CCCEP) has been protecting children from abuse and neglect by providing emergency shelter, family support services and family education and prevention services. The No Kidding: Straight Talk from Teen Parents program is a peer education program that makes a positive impact on the teen parents who teach the prevention program as Peer Educators, and on the middle and high school students who receive the lessons. Program goals are to help out-of-school, at-risk teen parents to be better parents, be job-ready, and improve their life skills. Secondary aims are to reduce unplanned pregnancies among youth ages 12-17 residing in El Paso County through presentations by the Peer Educators to middle and high school students. Additionally, the program teaches teen parents, of which 90% are Hispanic, to become team leaders in their community as they share their own experiences as teen parents with other teens that are unaware of the realities of parenthood. With funding from this grant, the current No Kidding program will focus on teens aged 13-17 years in El Paso County and expand the program to include a Parent-Child Parenting and GED program for the Teen Peer Educators in addition to the program's core training provided to teach the classes. At least 1,500 middle and high school students in the El Paso, Socorro and Ysleta Independent School Districts will participate in the No Kidding program. Program achievements will be measured by program objectives and tracked using a utilization report already in place.
CA/NCF