The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) has announced $12.8 million for Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) grants. The deadline for this application is June 24, 2024.
The Dibble Institute is dedicated to your success as an applicant! We hope this toolkit will help you win one of the 2024 SRA grants.
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 is the only evidence based program on the HHS Evidence-Based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program list that
- reduces adolescents’ risk for experiencing a pregnancy by 46%,
- delays the initiation of sexual activity, and
- helps youth who are already sexually active return to a lifestyle without sex.
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 19.
*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
- HECAT Tool
- Outcomes
- Medical Accuracy Review
- Fidelity Tools
- Equity - Populations - Settings
- Trauma-Informed
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training
- Technical Assistance
- Training Expectations
- Materials and Training Budget
- Teaching Supply List
- Sustainability
- Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
- Adaptation
- Issue Brief
In accordance with the GD-SRAE legislation, the interventions your program uses must address the following A–F topics:
| Love Notes SRA | |
| The holistic individual and societal benefits associated with personal responsibility, self-regulation, goal setting, healthy decision-making, and a focus on the future. | ✔ |
| The advantage of refraining from non-marital sexual activity in order to improve the future prospects and physical and emotional health of youth. | ✔ |
| The increased likelihood of avoiding poverty when youth attain self-sufficiency and emotional maturity before engaging in sexual activity. | ✔ |
| The foundational components of healthy relationships and their impact on the formation of healthy marriages and safe and stable families. | ✔ |
| How other youth risk behaviors, such as drug and alcohol usage, increase the risk for teen sex. | ✔ |
| How to resist and avoid, and receive help regarding, sexual coercion and dating violence. | ✔ |
| 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 LGBTQIA2s+ inclusive. | Love Notes is designed for a vulnerable audience of at-risk youth, including LGBTQIA2S+. The program has been written with inclusive language, scenarios, and content that applies to LGBTQIA2S+ youth. |
| 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– 19. |
| 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 on the federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Evidence Review (TPPER). The curriculum is packed with lively activities, designed to meet youth where they are. Real-life relationship scenarios written by diverse teens and young adults make the program especially engaging. It uses music, videos, and art to engage multiple learning modalities. |
| Culturally sensitive – responsive to youth served | This program was developed for high-needs urban and rural youth. If focuses on current culture with examples from youth of all different types of backgrounds and experiences. It has been successfully implemented with African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native, 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 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 to increase equity with historically under-represented and under-served youth including Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and American Indian teens as well as teens from rural areas and territories in a wide variety of settings. 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 culturally underrepresented, especially Hispanic, African American, or Native American teenagers
- 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)
- GLBTQ youth
- Youth in correctional settings
- Tribal Youth
- Runaway and homeless youth
- Community college students
- Foster youth (both within the system and aging out)
- Abused young people
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 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 of 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.
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 Dibble clients on December 11th from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST. and each second Wednesday of December thereafter.
The Dibble Institute includes two hours of complimentary technical assistance (TA) with every training. 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
The Dibble Institute has scheduled Dr. Bryant Marks from the National Training Institute on Race & Equity at Morehouse College for a webinar. Click here to learn more about Dr. Marks and the Institute.
Dr. Marks will provide a 3-hour DEI training for Dibble clients on December 11, 2024 from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST. and each second Wednesday of December through the course of your grant.
The cost is $45 per participant. We will open the registration for this training in October after the grants are announced.
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 2024 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
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.
