Community Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (CAPP) Program
EyesOpenIowa (EOI) has been a leader in adolescent pregnancy prevention in Iowa for decades. From 1987 through 2005, EOI (formerly FutureNet) assisted The Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) in establishing and managing the first Teen Pregnancy Prevention Task Force and worked closely with DHS staff to prepare the state’s needs assessment regarding teen pregnancy prevention, media campaigns, and prevention efforts throughout Iowa.
In 1997, EOI became a non-profit organization with the mission of reducing teen pregnancy. EOI began formal leadership with the Community Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (CAPP) program in SFY 2006 by working with local agencies across the state and piloting the community grantee network. In SFY 2009, DHS awarded EOI two contracts for adolescent pregnancy prevention 1) for statewide CAPP management, and 2) for a statewide coalition and media campaign. Eventually DHS merged those two contracts into one. EOI continued to improve and modify CAPP to meet the needs of Iowa communities, families, schools, and CAPP grantees.
Over the years, EOI achieved many successes with CAPP including:
Restructuring sex education in Iowa to consistently align with national best practices including the central focus on evidence-based or evidence-informed curricula in the classroom.
Ensuring that sex education under CAPP is inclusive, trauma-informed, and non-shaming.
Elevating educator professional development through peer mentoring, in-person and on-site training,
In addition, EOI leveraged it’s work within the CAPP program to bring in over one million dollars of additional funding to enhance and expand the work of CAPP and sex education initiatives throughout the state, including:
Developing and leading a first of it’s kind statewide initiative, the Eyes Open Academy, to properly train professionals on how to best provide quality, medically-accurate, bias-free sex education.
Creating and continuing to direct the nationally-recognized Certified Sexual Health Educator (CSHE) program for professionals.
Creating and continuing to manage the Talking Sex Together - AskTxTina statewide program for teens to text their sexual health questions to a trained health educator.
Greatly expanding stakeholder support of the program across the state and nationally.
EOI and the dedicated CAPP network of grantees led the program to significant impact including:
Implementation in over 150 school districts in Iowa with sex education and other related topics.
Reaching tens of thousands of Iowa youth each year with vital sexual health information and resources.
Impacting additional youth and families through education and awareness events and campaigns.
Creating networks of valued partners.
Helping Iowa to achieve its lowest teen birth rate in 30 years.
Impacting a significant decline in Iowa teen birth disparity rates.
Positioning Iowa as a model state for quality and effective sex education nationally.
“We are so thankful for EOI and the leadership provided to grantees. It keeps getting stronger and more visible as THE organization to turn to for adolescent sexual health information.”
In SFY 2018, DHS released the new CAPP administrative Request for Proposal. After careful consideration of the new RFP’s goals and program structure, EOI staff and board chose to not apply for the funding. EOI remains committed to its mission, doing what is right for young people, and looks forward to building on the tremendous achievements of the CAPP program, in new ways, in the future.
