This toolkit is actively updated with resources to improve your application for Title V funds. Check back frequently!!
The Dibble Institute® is dedicated to your success as an applicant for the Title V Competitive Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grants. Deadline is July 18, 2023.
You are eligible to apply for this funding if you will be serving youth in: Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, American Samoa, Guam, Marshall Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau.
Let us help you craft a strong proposal! Our materials teach youth personal responsibility, self-regulation, goal setting, healthy decision-making, a focus on future goals, and the prevention of risk behaviors such as drug and alcohol usage without normalizing teen sexual activity.
Love Notes Sexual Risk Avoidance Adaptation (SRA) meets all the criteria of this funding announcement because it complies with SRA criteria and is evidence based. It is medically accurate, age appropriate for ages 14-19, trauma-informed, and, with our permission, may be made culturally and linguistically appropriate by awardees. Love Notes SRA does not normalize teen sex. Love Notes is the only evidence-based curriculum that HHS has evaluated that both reduces the likelihood of pregnancy by 46% and also has positive outcomes for helping sexually active teens to decrease their frequency of sexual activity. More teens who were taught Love Notes stopped having sex and chose to remain abstinent compared to the control group.
People experiencing trauma and toxic stress often have difficulty regulating their emotional responses when facing challenges in school, life, and relationships. Mind Matters’ lessons teach people aged 12 and up to heal from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and other negative experiences with innovative methods based on current research and neuroscience. These skills give individuals a way to take charge of their emotions and improve their states of mind. Participants learn to address their physical, relational, and mental health needs.
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 Emma@DibbleInstitute.org for a free 30-day review copy of any of our programs. Please let us know that you are interested in Title V Competitive funding.
| Love Notes SRA | Mind Matters | ||
| Is an Evidence Based Program | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Addresses each of the A-F topics outlined in the legislation | ✔ | ||
| 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. | NA | |
| Needs of LGBTQ+ Youth are taken into consideration in the program’s design. | Each of the programs are designed for a vulnerable audience of at-risk youth, including LGBBTQ+. The lessons cover important topics for today’s issues including sexual consent, sexual assault, cyber bullying, online porn, sexting, drugs & alcohol – and their impact on relationships. The programs have been written with inclusive language, scenarios, and content that applies to LGBTQ+ youth. | ||
| Addresses the Trauma needs of vulnerable youth | Love Notes is a trauma informed program. | People experiencing trauma and toxic stress often have difficulty regulating their emotional responses when facing challenges in school, life, and relationships. Mind Matters addresses ACEs and trauma in youth, giving them skills and practices to soothe and build resilience.
|
|
| Medically accurate and complete | All medical information has been referenced to peer reviewed publications by educational, scientific, governmental, or health organizations. | ||
| Age-Appropriate | Love Notes SRA may be taught from ages 14 – 19, depending on the risk factors experienced by the population. | Mind Matters may be taught to youth ages 12 and up. | |
| Based on adolescent learning and developmental theories for the age group receiving the education | Love Notes SRA is an adaptation of Love Notes. Love Notes is listed as an evidence-based pregnancy prevention programs with the Office of Adolescent Health. The curriculum is packed with lively activities, designed specifically to engage youth, that use real-life relationship scenarios written by diverse teens and young adults. | ||
| Culturally sensitive, recognizing the experiences of youth from diverse communities, backgrounds, and experiences. | Each program was developed for high-needs urban and rural youth, utilizes current youth culture and examples from youth of all different types of backgrounds and experiences. It has been successfully implemented with African American youth, Hispanic/Latino youth, American Indian/Alaska Native-youth, and socioeconomically disadvantaged youth, and those who experience the highest rates of teen pregnancy and childbirth. | ||
| Any information provided on contraception is medically accurate and complete and ensures that students understand that contraception offers physical risk reduction, but not risk elimination. | Love Notes SRA clearly articulates 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. | None of the programs includes demonstrations, simulations, or distribution of contraceptive devices. | ||
| Applies core curriculum components that have been found to be effective in positive youth behavior change, especially: | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Delaying initiation of sexual activity until marriage | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Returning to a lifestyle without sex | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Refraining from non-marital sexual activity | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Intervention can be adapted with developer approval to become more culturally responsive and linguistically appropriate | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Fidelity implementation tools available | ✔ | ✔ | |
Allowable Adaptations without Publisher Notification
In the real world, curricula occasionally need to be adapted to meet the needs of the young people being served or the setting where they are being used. Below you will find examples of adaptations that are permitted without consultation with Dibble.
Please feel free to discuss further adaptations you are considering with us by emailing Grants@DibbleInstitute.org
Allowable Adaptations for Love Notes and Relationship Smarts PLUS
- Activities that directly relate to content
- Additional content may be added to the slide presentations deck from the complete Instructor’s Manual based on participant need and available time.
- Include Love Notes activities for expecting and parenting teens.
- Activities that do not relate to the content
- Change the first names in the scenarios to reflect the participants’ culture and gender.
- Change the PowerPoint photos to reflect the participants’ culture and gender.
- 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 sessions.
- Teach in-person or online.
- Use exercises, share facts, or make reminders about key concepts as part of booster text or sessions.
- Provide make-up sessions, including pre-recorded lessons.
- May be used with young adults up to age 24.
Unallowable Adaptations
- Delivery without using the Dibble provided PowerPoints and all participant materials, such as the workbooks and in the case of Love Notes, the Colors Personality Inventory.
- Delivery by a facilitator who has not been trained by a Dibble Certified Trainer.
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.
Training Fees are based on a 3-day in person or 5-day virtual training with a Dibble Training Specialist. Single or Multigroup training fees are $6,995 (for up to 25 seats) or $995 per person for individual seats. Please budget an additional $2,500 in estimated travel expenses per Training Specialist.
Call 800-695-7975 x200 for customized training quotes or further questions.
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 grant application. To help us understand your plans, please send an email to Aaron@DibbleInstitute.org with the following information:
- Your completed Training and Materials Agreement
- What program(s) you plan to use
- A brief overview of your project – setting, youth targeted, proposed timing of instruction (how many hours/days/weeks), number of youth reached, and instructional hours
- Recruitment/retention plans
- Evaluation approach and research question(s), if including
- How you plan to implement with fidelity and what adaptations, if any, you propose.
To help you meet the required annual DEI training the Dibble Institute is pleased to announce that we have booked Dr. Bryant Marks from the National Training Institute on Race & Equity at Morehouse College. Click here to learn more about Dr. Marks and the Institute.
Dr. Marks will provide a 3 hour DEI training for all Dibble clients on December 13th from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST. and each second Wednesday of December thereafter.
The cost is $45 per participant. We will open the registration for this training in October after the grants are announced.