Grants Archive

The proposed project – Healthy Girls, Powerful Women, Strong Communities – will build on the impactful work Spring has established in the last 8 years while further enhancing its effectiveness. The intervention efforts Spring students receive on a daily and long-term basis are designed to provide them with access to opportunity, a vision for a positive future, access to preventive health care services, and high-quality sex education, regardless of what obstacles they are facing. Spring provides regular, evidence-based sex education across all ages to ensure that students understand for themselves why it is important to value and protect their bodies, and feel confident in defining and maintaining the boundaries they choose to set for themselves.

Spring Initiative will:

• Ensure that Junior Spring and Big Spring students benefit from the evidence-based “Making Proud Choices!” sexual and reproductive health curriculum, demonstrating increased self-awareness and self-confidence as a result of their participation in the sessions, particularly as it relates to their choices around sexual activities.
• Provide high-quality, bi-weekly boys and girls time at Junior and Big Spring to bring about growth in areas such as self-esteem, understanding and valuing of boundaries, motivation to invest in one’s future, etc.
• Provide consistent individual support to students around areas of sexual and reproductive health, including one-on-one conversations, referrals, and offering logistical support.
• Thirty-five (35) Spring students will benefit from therapy on a weekly basis, 20 of whom are girls, and students will be able to access group therapy whenever needed to help resolve any conflicts or difficult situations at a cohort or small group level.
• Ensure that Mini Spring and Little Spring students benefit from the evidence-based “Promoting Health!” relationship-building and boundary-setting curriculum, demonstrating increased self-awareness and self-confidence as a result of their participation in the sessions.

The Department of Health Promotion and Wellness proposes a sexual health empowerment program to meet the needs of our college students by providing campaigns, programs, lunch and learns, workshops, and free and/or reduced STI testing. The program would include health service volunteers, graduate assistants, student association health and wellness council, Greek life council, and athletes to assist with the campaigns. Health Promotion and Wellness will utilize students to help
promote the initiatives. MSU proposed to:

• Increase the number of Mississippi State University students that participate in reduced cost sexually transmitted infection testing events each semester. Students will be tested for gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, and HIV.
• Increase the knowledge of reproductive health among female Mississippi State University students.
• Health Promotion and Wellness will host a “Ladies Night Out” event that would have wellness seminars on topics that center around reproductive health.
• Health Promotion and Wellness will host a "Gentlemen Night Out” event that would have wellness seminars on topics that center around reproductive health.
• Increase the knowledge of reproductive health among female Mississippi State University employees.
• Increase the awareness of the availability of free condoms on Mississippi State University campus for students.

The Encouraging Responsible and Informed Choices: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is designed to support healthy physical and social environments and healthy behaviors through informing and educating adolescents concerning risky sexual
behaviors, unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted disease prevention. This program will utilize the evidence-based abstinence plus Making Proud Choices curriculum, endorsed by the United States Department of Health as a high impact program.

“Back Off Baby: I’m in College” will utilize a holistic approach to wrap around services that will address the “whole woman” utilizing a four-topic framework: policy & system change, sexual health services, information/education and accessibility to affordable reproductive healthcare. Hind Community College proposes to:

• Establish a female student council that will serve as the advocate for their peers as it relates to supporting the prevention of unplanned pregnancies.
• Single Stop will host workshops and awareness activities that will utilize an evidence-based sex education curriculum.
• Identify and eliminate barriers to accessing and receiving contraceptives.
• Network with local healthcare facilities to establish a sliding scale for students that are interested in receiving contraceptives for the prevention of unplanned pregnancies.
• Assist students with the completion of Mississippi Family Planning application and provide the students with the necessary support services to ensure the application is processed in a timely manner.
• Assist female students with appointments that have transportation barriers.
• Provide evidenced based training to a total of 160 HCC students.
• Assist the Dribble Institute with a model that can be used by other colleges/universities as it relates to best practices and strategies to the implementation of Love Notes in a collegiate setting.

The Raising Mothers to Rise (RMR) program provides pregnant teens and parenting teen mothers with education and support regarding pregnancy prevention, maternal and fetal outcomes, and education. The services provided by the RMR Program are
centered around a weekly class meeting that is consistent throughout the calendar year.

The class meeting is for both mothers and children in the program, and features a healthy meal, childcare, educational activities for the children, and an educational topic for the mothers each week. Presentation from the program facilitators, a guest speaker, or a field trip to another community resource or activity are provided by RMR.

Additionally, each week, mothers have the opportunity to receive a baby item from the “grab basket” which contains frequently needed baby items. The weekly classes offered by the RMR program cover a variety of health and wellness topics relating to life goals and skills, continuing education, pregnancy and pregnancy prevention, childbirth, and stages of childcare and parenthood. The classes are all tailored to the programs’ targeted population. There are also a variety of seasonal and holiday-specific celebrations throughout the year. RMR places a large emphasis on community outreach and partnership.

Delta Health Center will partner with community and school-based organizations who already serve adolescents, to provide Teen Clinics at their community and school locations. The clinics will facilitate an evidence-based curriculum intended to reduce teen pregnancy, HIV, and STDs, utilizing a Sexual Health Educator trained in a variety of age-appropriate, interactive curricula, providing the ability to tailor the Teen Clinic program to the community/school setting. While #ProjectRAD will continue to offer Promoting Health Among Teens! curriculum that it has used over the past two years, the expanded project will offer additional curricula options.

The Sexual Health Educator will work with the school/community organization to select the best curriculum option for implementation, as well as an agreed upon day and time to teach the sessions. The Sexual Health Educator will hold parent meetings at the onset to inform them of the program, to gain their support to encourage consistent participation and reinforcement of concepts at home, and for the completion of DHC’s required registration packet including consent for services, HIPAA, and confidentiality forms.

Cary Christian Center proposes a program intended to give teenagers and young women and men the interpersonal awareness, communication skills and knowledge necessary to develop a positive self-image and to avoid relationships that lead to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and unhealthy relationships. Implementation of the research-based approach called Love Notes 3.0 will provide the foundation for Cary’s outreach, education and development of young people ages 16-24 in Sharkey and Issaquena counties. Love Notes underwent a rigorous five-year federal evaluation and emerged as one of the nation’s top prevention strategies for at-risk youth.

The Lighthouse creates programming focused on sexual reproductive health and relationship wellbeing targeted at high-school and college-aged girls/young women and boys/young men. The organization’s focus is the holistic health of the community and the relationship of the many types of people who live therein.

The Plan2Postpone (P2P) program hosts events for EMCC students on sex education, STDs, and postponing pregnancy until after graduation. For students who are parents, P2P offers assistance so the students can complete their education.

Young women come together to study the work of celebrated poets, develop their own writing, and participate in female youth-specific workshops on topics such as body image, self-esteem, college access, healthy relationships, and sex-ed.

LinkedUp’s overall goal is to reduce unintended pregnancies among older teens (ages 18-19) by increasing the contraceptive coverage of teens transitioning out of care from a school-based health clinic (SBHC) or mobile school-based clinic (MSBC) to a community college after leaving high school.

LGBTQ teens are more vulnerable than their heterosexual peers to poor reproductive health outcomes due to the lack of education and emotional support. EmpowerU will improve care for LGBTQ teens through education and support services, virtual healthcare and counseling, and cultural competency training.

In collaboration with Mississippi First, Mississippi University for Women (MUW) announced the first Sexual Health Continuing Education Certificate (SHCEC) available for sexual health educators in Mississippi. Current teachers can now earn the SHCEC and Continued Education Units (CEUs) at MUW. Health Educators who are Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES or MCHES) can also receive CEUs in Sexual Health Education, the first in the state of Mississippi.

The Encouraging Responsible and Informed Choices: Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program is designed to support healthy physical and social environments and healthy behaviors through informing and educating adolescents concerning risky sexual behaviors, unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted disease prevention.

Raising Mothers to Rise (RMR) is a program designed to serve pregnant and parenting teen mothers in North Mississippi.  It will offer two classes per week, each lasting one hour. One class per week is for the pregnant teens and the other will be a teen mother support group. The teen mothers will begin attending the support group after their initial postpartum period has ended. The weekly classes will cover a variety of health and wellness topics relating to life goals and skills, education/career goals, pregnancy, childbirth, sexual health, preventing subsequent unplanned pregnancies and stages of childcare and parenthood.

#ProjectRAD will focus on improving access to adolescent health services by providing preventive healthcare services regardless of a teen’s ability to pay. Delta Health Center OB/GYN staff will establish at least one afternoon a month to hold a Teen Health Clinic. Materials will be developed specifically targeting young people and will be used to recruit adolescents to visit a health clinic for preventive health services including sexual and reproductive health services. Additionally, adolescents will be able to see a healthcare provider at any time, not just during the Teen Health Clinic time.

The ECWF works with religious leaders to develop and implement meaningful sexual education programs within their congregations and surrounding communities. This year, the Faith in Women network members are assessing training options, curriculum choices and resource development.

The Reproductive Health Ambassador program recruits and trains young women to educate their peers and parents about sexual health and relationships. Provided by the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, these women have access to comprehensive workshops and opportunities to shadow professionals in the reproductive health field.

The abused and neglected girls of The Methodist Children’s Home are already at a social and economic disadvantage. The Girls Matter Program provides them with proper sexual education services including health screenings, STI and pregnancy testing, and access to birth control. The program is divided into two groups. Girls with Goals works with “at risk” teenagers who do not already have children, while Girls with Gifts addresses teenagers who are pregnant or have recently given birth.

The Mississippi Delta lacks evidence-based planned pregnancy services, resulting in high rates of unplanned pregnancy and infant mortality. Through one-on-one home visits, the Efforts to Outcome program works to reverse this trend by providing proper information on sexual health and prenatal health to women ages 16-24.

The Lanier High Teen Advocacy Program’s nurse-run teen clinic expands access to primary and preventative healthcare in this urban area. Their Teen Advisory Board has also established a peer-education training program using the Safer Choices evidence-based curriculum in order to encourage safe sex.

Incoming college freshman are particularly at risk for unplanned pregnancies, leading to a decrease in student retention and the overall graduation rate. This JSU program works to reverse this trend by educating incoming freshman about sexual health and how to avoid unwanted pregnancies, as well as providing accurate information about STIs. Weekly workshops utilizing the BART (Becoming a Responsible Teen) curriculum are the central focus.

The MCTPP partners with after school programs throughout the state to educate middle school students and their parents/guardians about sexual health. The curriculum consists of evidence-based sexual education, with follow-up booster sessions for reinforcement. Since the program launched, participants have seen an increased retention of the information learned and communication has increased within the participants’ families.

Children of incarcerated parents are significantly more likely than are other children to drop out of school, to have difficulty securing employment once their education is complete, to participate in abusive and violent relationships, and to face arrest and incarceration themselves as adults. The proposed program is the only one of its kind that addresses not only the educational challenges of incarcerated persons, but also their children. Vox Press will conduct a series of workshops that will take place once a week during prison visitation hours at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, Mississippi, and Washington Correctional Facility in Greenville, Mississippi. The program will offer students an alternating balance of direct instruction, facilitated classroom discussion and individual creative assignments.

Tutwiler Community Education Center will:

Teach two generations to quilt and become entrepreneurs

Recruit 10 single mothers and their children – ages 12-16 years old

Increase the quilting knowledge of program participants

Teach participants how to make quilting items

Increase access to financial literacy and entrepreneurship education

Increase program participant’s knowledge on how to market quilting items

Sell the quilted items made by participants

The ‘Wisdom Building for Children & Families’ project teaches both parents and children how to create a better future, which includes an increase in children and adults receiving a high school diploma, enrolling in college/vocation, graduating from college/vocation, stepping into professions/careers, and living a fully healthy and whole life.

Education is important for every generation. The Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK) program provides early literacy intervention services to children, and postsecondary educational opportunities to their parents. These women receive childcare and transportation assistance, while receiving one-on-one mentorship to help enroll for classes and apply for jobs.

Disability Rights Mississippi’s “Improving Opportunities Across Generations” program will involve intensive support and advocacy on behalf to two generations of twelve families to improve their educational and employment outcomes. This program will expand the depth and breadth of direct advocacy assistance thereby improving the stability of families who have children with disabilities.  The program will provide information, supervised referrals, counseling, and legal advocacy as needed.

Making ‘WAVES’ (Women Achieving Victories and Educational Success) recruits non-traditional and economically vulnerable families for an on-campus Child Development Lab School. Coordinators create child-focused activities, child-focused with parent elements, parent-focused, parent-focused with child elements, and whole family learning opportunities for a holistic approach to meeting needs.

Stand By You assists mothers pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in Education and Business through providing access to workshops and seminars preparing for professional licensure exams and tests. Mississippi State University – Meridian will also provide developmental and educational activities for the children, while mothers are attending classes.

The Women Advancing Generational Employment Success (W.A.G.E.S.) program provides assistance to low-income women through access to training vouchers, barrier mitigation vouchers, fuel assistance vouchers, child care cost assistance, and program completion incentive stipends.

2nd Chance MS is a two-generation program providing assistance to mothers or caregivers. 2nd Chance helps the caregiver with tuition for workforce training, transportation, testing fees, and other wraparound support. Concurrently, 2nd Chance provides tuition assistance for the child to enroll in Pre-K or child care.

The Project Gateway goal is to provide women who are students at Northwest Mississippi Community College with financial assistance for classroom and career readiness in cases where their existing educational funds have been exhausted. Northwest MS seeks to alleviate financial woes that may hinder women from maintaining full-time credit status for five consecutive semesters. Northwest MS also seeks to promote career readiness by ensuring Northwest women meet the financial needs associated with a career in their designated field.

The Women’s Emergency Assistance Fund at East Central Community College (ECCC) seeks to help female students circumvent any economic barriers they might encounter that would impede or cease completion of their educational and/or career goals.

The goal of the Women’s Emergency Fund II is to provide emergency funding to female students whose continued education is in jeopardy due to temporary financial emergencies or other situations that present a financial burden. The Women’s Emergency Fund II will also offer two workshops each month. Students who demonstrate a need for a more hands-on approach will be referred for academic coaching and/or counseling services. 

Empowering Mentors to Promote Women’s Retention (EMPOWR) program seeks to increase the social integration and engagement, and ultimately retention, of nontraditional female students attending East Mississippi Community College (EMCC) through a peer mentoring program. Augmented with interactive speaker sessions, students learn more about available student services, career planning, financial aid, health, and relationship management. EMCC also proposes working with first generation women in jeopardy of dropping out at the Scooba campus.

Coahoma Community College Workforce Women’s Emergency Fund assists Coahoma Community College female students who are low income and in need of emergency assistance. The Fund will assist with short term financial emergencies such as assistance for transportation costs, automotive repairs, child care, utility bills, and educational expense not covered by financial aid.

For women overcoming hardships to enter college, support from like-minded peers is a vital and meaningful motivator to keep them in college. The EMPOWR program increases social integration, engagement and retention of female students attending Mississippi community colleges through peer mentoring programs and interactive speakers sessions.

The Community College Legal Clinic at Hinds Community College provides pro bono legal counsel to women through student information services and legal workshops. The legal team counsels women on student loan debt, fair housing, family law and predatory lending that often stress the finances of low-income women.

Female students enrolled in NEMCC’S Career Pathway program receive financial assistance for tuition, textbooks and childcare, as well as transportation needs like gas cards and car repairs. Students also go through the Tiger W.O.R.K.S. program for career counseling and employability training, including 12 months of post-exit follow-up services.

Unplanned pregnancies often prevent women from completing their education. This national program partners community colleges with local health providers in order to provide female college students with online, college-credited sexual education and clinic resources for contraception methods. The goal is to offer greater access to quality health care options and, in turn, a better chance of graduating.

The Women’s College Completion Assistance Program helps female students relieve financial burdens with gas cards, hot meals from the cafeteria and paying for test fees. Students receive tablets for access to e-books, as well as access to support groups and seminars.

Low-income, first-generation, and disabled female students face even more obstacles than their peers on their way to graduating. The Women’s Emergency Fund helps lower these hurdles, providing financial support for food, gas, medicine and childcare. Students also have access to tutoring, career services and the “New Beginnings” support group.

From medical issues to family crises, women often bear the brunt of financial emergencies. The Emergency Assistance Fund provides quick access to monetary support for women enrolled at Hinds so they don’t have to choose between paying tuition or addressing a financial crisis, like car trouble or medical bills. This support helps to improve student retention and graduation rates.

Every woman deserves a college education, but not all are academically prepared to even begin the coursework. The Corequisite Remediation Program consists of tutoring, career counseling lunch-and-learns, and S.T.E.M. profession guidance. In 2017, this program will help 60 women become college graduates.