The Title V Competitive Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grants are now available. The Dibble Institute is dedicated to your success as an applicant! We hope this toolkit will help you win one of the 2025 Competitive Title V grants. Deadline is July 22, 2025.
Organizations in the following states and territories are eligible to apply:
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We are currently reviewing the educational curricular requirements of this funding and are updating Love Notes 4.1 Sexual Risk Avoidance Adaptation (SRA) to fully meet the criteria of a primary and unambiguous emphasis that normalizes the optimal health behavior of avoiding non-marital sexual activity.
In a randomized control trial, youth in Love Notes were:
- More likely to remain abstinent
- More likely to return to abstinence, AND
- 46% less likely to become pregnant or experience a teenage pregnancy.
Love Notes SRA is medically accurate, age appropriate, culturally and linguistically appropriate, and trauma-informed.
Love Notes was originally developed for young people ages 14 to 19. At the request of clients, we adapted Love Notes SRA content to be developmentally appropriate for middle school youth ages 10-13 in a Middle School (MS) version.
The Dibble Institute is pleased to provide Spanish translations of all our participant materials to better serve young people.
Below please find tools and grant aids for the Sexual Risk Avoidance adaptation of Love Notes that we hope you will find helpful. Let us know if there is other information that you would find useful.
Email Kim@DibbleInstitute.org for a free 30-day review copy Love Notes SRA. Please let us know that you are interested in Competitive Title V funding.
- A-F Crosswalk
- Program Considerations
- The Success Sequence
- Logic Model
- Outcomes
- Citations Showing Evidence
- Populations - Settings
- Medical Accuracy Review
- Fidelity Tools
- Sustainability
- Adaptations
- Training Expectations
- Technical Assistance
- Teaching Supply List
- Materials and Training Agreement
- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
The Success Sequence, another important concept of Love Notes SRA, is introduced after seven lessons designed to provide youth with the skills and knowledge to set future goals and build healthy relationships.
In the lesson, Decide, Don’t Slide! Pathways and Sequences Towards Success, the program highlights how a combination of certain milestones or achievements – specifically, completing high school, obtaining full-time employment, and marriage – in young adult life can really matter for successful economic outcomes and family stability.
The program emphasizes the benefits of planning and clear decision-making throughout one’s youth, especially as it pertains to sexual delay. This concept is then revisited throughout the remainder of the program with the closing activity designed to have youth create a concrete plan for how they will achieve the key milestones of the Success Sequence.
In a randomized control trial, youth in Love Notes were:
- More likely to remain abstinent
- More likely to return to abstinence, AND
- 46% less likely to become pregnant or experience a teenage pregnancy.
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
Below is a partial list of populations and settings where Love Notes is being used.
Check out our real life Case Studies here.
Populations
- Youth living in under-resourced regions and areas with high rates of teen births and STIs
- Youth who are underrepresented
- 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 abuse
Settings
- System engaged youth
- Group homes (Foster)
- Residential settings (Mental health)
- Detention centers
- Challenge academies
- Schools
- Alternative schools
- Faith-based settings
- Community agencies
Love Notes fidelity tools for great results!
The following fidelity aids and checklists are included when you purchase the Love Notes 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.
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.
Love Notes SRA may be adapted to become more culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate. Please do not change the videos without prior consultation with us.
Allowable Adaptations
Activities that directly relate to Love Note’s content:
- Add additional content from the Love Notes Instructor’s Manual based on participant need and available time.
- Include Love Notes activities for expecting and parenting teens.
Activities that do not directly relate to Love Note’s content:
- Change the first names in the scenarios to reflect the participants’ culture and gender.
- Change photos in slides to reflect participants.
- Create scenarios that are culturally responsive.
- Add icebreakers or energizers at the start of each session or between modules if delivering during an extended period of time.
Program Delivery:
- Deliver lengthened sessions.
- Increase the number and frequency of Love Notes sessions.
- Use exercises, share facts, or make reminders about key concepts as part of booster text or sessions.
- Provide make-up sessions.
Unallowable Adaptations
- Delivery without using the Love Notes PowerPoints and participant Journal for each student.
- Delivery by a facilitator who has not attended a Dibble Certified Training.
- Skipping content or activities from the EBP content.
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
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 attended a Dibble-certified training in a previous edition of Love Notes or Relationship Smarts PLUS
One day virtual or in-person training to review new, updated, and/or content unique to Love Notes SRA.
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 attended a Dibble-certified training in Love Notes SRA 4.0 or 4.1
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
The Dibble Institute includes two hours of complimentary technical assistance (TA) with every Group Training Agreement. Additional TA at $95 an hour may be scheduled based on your needs.
We can help you craft a clear and realistic recruitment, retention, training, and TA plan to build capacity on topics pertinent to implementation of your SRA project and priorities listed in this NOFO for facilitator throughout the grant.
Based on your needs, TA topics could include:
- Developing a post-training plan for successful facilitation
- Handling sensitive topics
- Trauma-informed training techniques
- Improving facilitation skills
- Creating effective recruitment and retention plans
- Successful implementation models in schools and community organizations
- Identifying participant referral resources
Art supplies for Love Notes SRA could total up to $200 per 30 participants. Please budget accordingly.
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.
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 Agreement