Adolescent Health Programming

The Wisconsin Adolescent Health team has current programming that helps keep young people healthy across the state. Program funding comes from several federal grants. Learn more about each initiative.

Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP)

PREP is a program that aims to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. This program focuses on providing youth with knowledge and skills around positive adolescent development, healthy life skills, and healthy relationships.

How does PREP work?

PREP provides funds to support agencies, also called implementation sites. They educate young people on sexual health. Agencies include non-profits and local health departments in the southeast and northern regions of the state.

For programming, PREP agencies use high-quality, evidence-based programs. They acknowledge the unique adolescent experience, while giving them what they need to transition to adulthood. They promote positive development, healthy connections, and healthy life skills. This approach addresses the needs of thousands of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable youth.

Who is PREP for?

PREP is for youth who are in high school. It focuses on marginalized youth:

Youth in a racial or ethnic minority group
Youth who are homeless
Youth in foster care
Youth who live in rural areas or places with high adolescent birth rates

Learn more about state PREP.

Project Wisconsin Initiative for Student Empowerment (WISE)

Project WISE is a program that aims to achieve the following, long-term, in funded communities:

Reduce adolescent pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted diseases.
Increase healthy behaviors among youth. This means lowered rates of alcohol/drug use and sexual risk behavior, and increased healthy relationships.
Increase high school graduation rates.

How is Project WISE funded?

Project WISE gets funding from the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grant provided by the Family and Youth Services Bureau. They are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

How does Project WISE work?

Project WISE chooses sites through a competitive process. Sites get money to fund education on sexual risk avoidance. This teaches young people to, by choice, refrain from sexual activity. Education must be:

Age-appropriate.
Complete.
Evidence-based, using a positive youth development approach.
Inclusive.
Medically accurate.

Sites use the Wyman’s Teen Outreach Program® (also called TOP). TOP promotes the positive development of adolescents. Through TOP, young people have curriculum-guided, interactive group talks and positive adult guidance and support. They also take part in community service learning. Students get TOP services in school and in afterschool settings.

TOP focuses on topics that relate to adolescent health and development:

Building social, emotional, and life skills
Developing a positive sense of self
Connecting with others

Who is Project WISE for?

Project WISE is for youth in sixth through eighth grade. It focuses on:

Youth in a racial or ethnic minority group.
Youth who are homeless.
Youth in foster care.
Youth who live in rural areas or places with high adolescent birth rates.

In Wisconsin, these areas currently have Project WISE:

Adams County
Milwaukee County
Oneida County (Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk schools)
Vilas County (Lac Du Flambeau)

Learn more about the State Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grant.

Sexual Violence Prevention program

The Sexual Violence Prevention program aims to decrease rates of sexual violence.

How is the Sexual Violence Prevention program funded?

The program gets funding from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Rape Prevention and Education grant.

How does the Sexual Violence Prevention program work?

The program works with diverse communities to increase health and safety. It does this by addressing the root causes of sexual violence, applying primary prevention strategies. These consider the person, their connections, and other factors that put people at risk for violence or protect them from it.

Learn more about Sexual Violence Prevention.

Maternal and Child Health Title V block grant

The Title V block grant aims to improve the health and well-being of adolescents. Title V works to decrease the number of young people who report feeling sad or hopeless. It also works to decrease youth reporting being bullied on school property.

How does Title V work?

Title V funding supports Providers and Teens Communicating for Health. This is a youth-delivered program. It targets barriers that get in the way of health care providers talking to adolescents effectively. It focuses on sensitive health topics. This program also provides opportunities for young people to be paid as advocates for health in their communities. There are toolkits for parents and youth to help extend the reach of this program.

Title V funding supports local and tribal health departments seeking to improve adolescent well-being in their communities. Health departments improve adolescent well-being by offering evidence-based mental health and suicide prevention trainings. Health departments promote warmlines such as Youthline, the PRISM Program, and Iris Place. Health departments also support schools in anti-bullying strategies recommended by the Department of Public Instruction.

Title V also supports the Department of Public Instruction in conducting the Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which measures health-risk behaviors of young people.