The Dibble Institute is dedicated to your success as an applicant! We hope this toolkit will help you win an SRA grant!
Love Notes Sexual Risk Avoidance Adaptation (SRA) is the version of Love Notes that meets all the criteria of this funding announcement as it complies with SRA criteria and is evidence based.
Love Notes:
- Delays the initiation of sexual activity.
- Helps youth who are already sexually active return to a lifestyle without sex.
- Reduces adolescents’ risk for experiencing a pregnancy by 46%.
- Recently updated, and
- Effectively attracts and retains more youth!
Love Notes SRA is medically accurate, age appropriate*, culturally and linguistically appropriate, and trauma-informed. The program does not normalize teen sex.
Love Notes was developed for young people ages 14 to 24.*
*The Love Notes SRA Middle School Adaptation is appropriate for middle school youth ages 10-13.
Love Notes SRA
- A-F Crosswalk
- Program Considerations
- Citations showing evidence
- Logic Model
- Positive Youth Development
- HECAT Tool
- Outcomes
- Medical Accuracy Review
- Fidelity Tools
- Settings - Populations
- Empower Youth
- Training Expectations
- Materials and Training Budget
- Teaching Supply List
- Sustainability
- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
- Issue Brief
| Love Notes SRA | |
| Ensure that the unambiguous and primary emphasis and context for each topic is a message to youth that normalizes the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity | Love Notes SRA focuses on optimal health by teaching teens and young adults relationship skills that encourage and motivate them to make healthy relationship decisions. It clearly explains the benefits of avoiding non-marital sexual activity, and it does not normalize teen sex. |
| Program is for all youth | Love Notes is being successfully implemented with many youth across a wide variety of settings. See the “Settings – Population” tab to learn more. |
| Medically accurate and complete | All medical information has been made current and updated with guidance from FYSB. |
| Age-Appropriate | Love Notes SRA may be taught to youth from ages 10–24.*
*The Love Notes SRA Middle School Adaptation is appropriate for middle school youth ages 10-13. |
| Based on adolescent learning and developmental theories for the age group receiving the education | Love Notes SRA is an adaptation of Love Notes. The curriculum is packed with lively activities, designed to meet youth where they are. Real-life relationship scenarios written by many teens and young adults make the program especially engaging. It uses music, videos, and art to engage multiple learning modalities. |
| Responsive to youth | This program was developed for youth to engage with the program activities. It has been successfully implemented with youth across many different populations and settings. It is up-to-date with social references and youth experiences to enhance youth engagement and empowerment. |
| Any information provided on contraception is medically accurate and complete and ensures that students understand that contraception reduces but does not eliminate physical risk | Love Notes SRA clearly articulate the message and builds skills to motivate youth to avoid STIs and pregnancy. All lessons contain medically accurate information and, uniquely, build motivation by focusing on the needs of children for safe and stable family lives. Lessons ensure that teens understand the difference between risk reduction and risk elimination. |
| Education does not include demonstrations, simulations, or distribution of contraceptive devices | Love Notes SRA does not demonstrate, simulate, or distribute any contraceptive device. |
The citations provided below give a rationale for choosing Love Notes SRA as your intervention. They cite evidence that demonstrates how Love Notes applies its key program elements to positively influence youth behavior change, namely delaying initiation of sexual activity, preventing and reducing teen pregnancies and sexual activity.
- Barbee, A. P., Cunningham, M. R., Antle, B. F., Langley, C. N. (2022). Impact of a relationship-based intervention, Love Notes, on teen pregnancy prevention. Family Relations, 1-20.
- Impact of Two Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Interventions on Risky Sexual Behavior: A Three-Arm Cluster Randomized Control Trial(pdf). Anita P. Barbee, MSSW, PhD, Michael R. Cunningham, PhD, Michiel A. van Zyl, PhD, Becky F. Antle, MSSW, PhD, and Cheri N. Langley,PhD, MPH, 2016.
- Cunningham, M. R., van Zyl, M. A., & Borders, K. W. (2016). Evaluation of Love Notes and Reducing the Risk in Louisville, Kentucky. Final Evaluation Report to the University of Louisville Research Foundation, Louisville, KY
Love Notes fidelity tools for great results!
The following fidelity aids and checklists are included when you purchase the Love Notes 4.0 SRA Manual:
- Annotated slide deck to focus the instructor on key content.
- Observational fidelity tools for coaches and evaluators.
- Love Notes knowledge test.
- Inventory of related scales that can assess attitudinal and behavioral outcomes regarding sex, relationship quality, communication, conflict, control, violence as well as mediators.
Note: To maintain fidelity, training of your organization’s Love Notes instructors by a Dibble Training Specialist is required.
Love Notes is being successfully implemented with many youth across a wide variety of settings. Below is a partial list of populations and settings where Love Notes is being used.
For more details about implementation settings and populations, review case studies here.
Settings
- System engaged youth
- Group homes (Foster)
- Residential settings (Mental health)
- Detention centers
- Challenge academies
- Schools
- Alternative schools
- Faith-based settings
- Community agencies
Populations
- Youth living in areas with high rates of teen births and STIs
- Youth in, or aging out, of foster care or adjudication systems
- Youth who are victims of trafficking
- Risk-immersed youth
- Expecting and parenting teens (both fathers and mothers)
- Youth in correctional settings
- Tribal youth
- Runaway and homeless youth
- Community college students
- Foster youth (both within the system and aging out)
- Youth who have been abused
Love Notes was designed with two trauma-informed goals in mind:
- To directly empower youth: Help teens and young adults who have experienced childhood adversity to make meaning of their pasts by looking at the patterns they experienced to better understand how these earlier events have influenced their lives and choices. Most importantly, to support youth in defining what they want in their relationships, their present or future family, and for their life goals. Yet defining isn’t enough. It is essential to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to build self-efficacy and confidence to move towards their goals.
- To prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences in the children these youth have or may have in the future: An important hook throughout the curriculum is how Intimate Partner Violence, unstable and turbulent relationships, and unplanned pregnancies affect children. These concepts are conveyed through upbeat and empowering activities. Vulnerable youth immediately understand the connection between family structure and outcomes for children and they long to protect to their current or eventual children. We build upon that protective, empathetic instinct. We tap their aspirations and give them a huge trove of knowledge and skills to help them move towards their aspirations.
Additionally, The Dibble Institute has developed Trauma Informed Teaching Tips to help assure the safety and well-being of the young people you serve.
The Dibble Institute offers high-quality, ongoing professional development and training in the program model for all your project staff and facilitators to ensure successful implementation and evaluation. We are also available to provide follow-up technical assistance to facilitators, as needed. To assure the success of your SRA implementation, we recommend the following training protocols:
1) For clients new to Love Notes SRA 4.0
Five day 3.5-hour per day online training or 3 full day in-person training for all instructional and project staff. Group discounts are available.
Please call Carlie Kaeppler at 800-695-7975 ext. 703 or Carlie@Dibbbleinstitute.org to obtain a training quote.
2) Clients who have been trained in a previous edition of Love Notes SRA
One day virtual or in-person training to review new and updated content.
Please call Dr. Rachel Savasuk-Luxton at 800-695-7975 ext 705 or email Rachel@Dibbleinstitute.org to obtain a training quote.
3) Clients who have been trained in Love Notes SRA 4.0
Please call Dr. Rachel Savasuk-Luxton at 800-695-7975 ext. 705 or email Rachel@Dibbleinstitute.org to begin a needs assessment process and development of your personalized training plan.
**Please note: If you have trainees with varied experience attending a training, your training plan will be based on those individuals who have the least experience with Love Notes SRA.
4) Clients with TOT-Certified Love Notes Trainers on staff
Please complete this form as part of your planning and budgeting process. We will need to see it prior to signing an MOU with your organization.
Download the SRA 2025 Materials and Training Agreement
Art supplies for Love Notes SRA could total up to $200 per 30 participants. Please budget accordingly.
The Dibble Institute is pleased to consult with you as you write your grant and after it has been awarded strategies to sustain your activities over time. We have demonstrated over our nine years of implementing a federal grant, how to bring relationship education cost-effectively to large numbers of youth by using existing community systems.
We can also help you develop your sustainability plans by identifying alternative funding streams that support relationship education beyond your grant. Our Dibble Team is ready to research opportunities on behalf of your organization, curating a personalized list of funding. Your Funding Opportunity Report will provide all the relevant information needed to choose new funding opportunities, build relationships with the funder, and begin the application process when funds are made available. For $99, you can purchase a funding opportunity report that includes:
- A relevant list of opportunities for your organization at Federal, State, and Local Levels
- Description of each grant or other funding type
- Relevant dates, deadlines, and information to apply
- A comprehensive list of Dibble resources to support your application
- A one-on-one meeting with Dibble staff to review the report and talk about next steps
Please email Kay Reed, Executive Director, at kayreed @ DibbleInstitute.org to set up a time to consult.
The Dibble Institute is pleased to sign an MOU with you as part of your application.
To help us understand your plans, please send an email Aaron @ DibbleInstitute.org with the following information:
- Numbers of students you plan to serve each year of the grant.
- Your signed Materials and Training Budget
