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STATE OF CONNECTICUT TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY FAMILIES (TANF) STATE PLAN 2021-2023  SECTION A - PART V EFFECTIVE DATE 10/1/20 – 9/30/23  Initial Submission 12/29/20  Revision –  Page 35 TEEN-PREGNANCY PREVENTION - SECTION A –PART V Sec. 402(a)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act (v) – The Teen-Pregnancy Prevention part describes how the state intends to establish goals and take action to prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies, with special emphasis on teenage pregnancies, and establish numerical goals for reducing the illegitimacy ratio of the state (as defined in Section 403(a)(2)(C)(iii) of the Social Security Act), for calendar years 2021 through 2023.

The Department of Social Services (DSS) operates a statewide teen pregnancy prevention initiative comprised of individual programs run by not-for profit organizations and municipalities in eleven (11) Connecticut towns and cities. The communities served are: Bridgeport, East Hartford, Hartford, Killingly, Meriden, New Britain, New Haven, New London, Norwich, Waterbury, and Willimantic. The programs in these areas serve five-hundred fifty (550) participants.

The implemented programs utilize the Teen Outreach Program (TOP), a service learning model, where participants engage in, reflect on, and learn from community service projects. TOP is a science based model that has been evaluated and has shown evidence that it is among the most effective approaches to preventing teen pregnancies. The DSS funded teen pregnancy prevention initiative funds primarily support the individual programs, but also cover independent research and evaluation with Philliber Research Associates (PRA), statistical analysis (UConn Family Planning Division), and training from Wyman Associates who owns the Teen Outreach Service Learning program. Teen-pregnancy prevention programs funded by DSS work intensively with young men as well as young women to address issues of health, education, and other life issues. DSS worked with the Department of Public Health to review data collection on out-of- wedlock pregnancies. DSS has set numerical goals for reducing the number out-of- wedlock pregnancies for teens between the ages of 15 and 19 in the DSS Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative to no more than 18 births per 1,000 for 2018, 17 births per 1,000 in 2019, and 16 births per 1,000 in 2020.