Switchboard of Miami Projects

Project HEART
Project HEART (Holistic Education and Abstinence Reinforced for Teens) was a five-year project that was recently completed. It was a curriculum-based high school program aimed at preventing high risk behaviors that could lead to teen pregnancy. Each year, the program served the entire ninth grade at Jackson Senior High School in Miami, Florida. This school is primarily comprised of Hispanic and African American youth who are considered at risk because their community is considered high risk in terms of poverty and crime. The school that these youth attended is considered one of the most challenging schools in Miami. Guided by research, the HEART project focused on multiple risk factors for both sexual and non-sexual antecedents combined with other pregnancy prevention initiatives. Previous research had found that interventions focusing on both sexual and non-sexual antecedents have higher levels of reduction in teen pregnancy and birth rates among girls over a long period of time.  In 2001, Miami’s teens gave birth to four thousand infants and had repeat pregnancies at 44%, twice the national rate of 22%. Another serious concern related to risky sexual behavior is the infection rate of HIV/AIDS within Miami Dade County. Miami is now one of the leading cities in the country for HIV/AIDS among 18-29 year olds. The HEART program consisted of three research-based programs approved by OAPP. The Sex Can Wait curriculum, Life Skills Training curriculum, and Baby Think it Over program were implemented with these high risk ninth grade students. The key questions addressed in this program evaluation were: (1) what is the independent effect of each program and (2) what combination of programs appears to have the greatest impact on preventing adolescent sexual activity and pregnancy with high-risk teens.

Project REAL
Project REAL (Reinforcing Education through Abstinence and Leadership) is a curriculum based middle school program aimed at preventing high risk behaviors that could lead to teen pregnancy. Each year, the program serves the entire seventh and eighth grade at Allapattah Middle School in Miami, Florida. This school is comprised of mostly Hispanic and African American youth who are considered at risk youth because the community is considered high risk in terms of poverty and crime. Allapattah Middle School is a zone school which means that the school is being targeted for extra help to boost the school from a failing school to a school with higher achievement on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. The REAL program consists of three research-based programs approved by OAPP. The Choosing the Best Way and Path curriculums and Baby Think it Over program are being implemented at Allapattah Middle School. Each curriculum offers intervention into the social, psychological and health advantages of choosing an abstinent lifestyle. The goal is to attribute group differences between the intervention and control groups in the fall semester to changes in the program participants due to the intervention or interventions that they received.

Project P.H.A.S.E.
The Switchboard of Miami has been implementing Project P.H.A.S.E. (Preventing HIV, AIDS, & Substance Abuse Effectively) a science-based SAP/HIVP model.  The Project is an integrated "hybrid" of two science-based programs:  the Healthy Oakland Teens Project (H.O.T.) and the "Parents Who Care" research developed at the University of Washington by Hawkins and Catalano (1996). The Healthy Oakland Teens Project founded in 1992 at an urban, ethnically diverse junior high school, provides HIV and substance abuse risk reduction strategies. The Parents Who Care provides strength-based parenting and family management skill building to improve family relationships. The purpose of the intervention is to eliminate or reduce HIV-related risk behaviors among minority youth.  The underlying philosophy of Project P.H.A.S.E. is that parents must be involved in any prevention strategies that target youth.  Parental inclusion, which focuses on improving family management practices and relationships, will reduce and/or eliminate HIV risk-related behaviors among adolescents.  The program utilizes indigenous "natural helpers" [teenagers and parents] as "messengers" of the prevention strategies and skill building interventions.

Project Strength
The University of Miami is evaluating project STRENGTH, a comprehensive abstinence only program that incorporates 3 proven effective strategies. This program includes two educational curricula, Choosing the Best Life & Choosing the Best Path; a 6-week parent education/support component; & culturally relevant community reinforcement component (w/churches, YWCA etc.) that bolsters community norms & support for teen abstinence. These components aim to achieve the major goals of the project which are: to prevent & reduce non-marital sexual activity, STDs, HIV, teen pregnancy & associated problems among youth, who by virtue of their culture & residency in high-risk environments, are among the most likely to experience these problems.  A rigorous quasi experimental design is being used to test the effects of this project on 2,701 youth annually & their parents. This project is serving 7th and 8th grade students at four high schools in Miami-Dade.