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MAIN APPLICATION In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, North Carolina's teen pregnancy rate fell 11% to 35.2 out of every 1,000 15 -19 year old girls, which is a record low in the state's history. Orange County's teen pregnancy rate dropped 35% from 2012 - from 14.8 to 9.6 in 2013. This number represents 102 teen pregnancies in 2012 down to 68 in 2013. Orange County has historically had one of the lowest rates in the state, but this large reduction year -to -year is notable and a positive step. Even with this lowest and dropping overall rate, rate disparities exist by race and ethnicity. Orange County demonstrates a greater racial and ethnic disparity when it comes to teen pregnancy rates than the state as a whole. In our community, 4.8 out of every 1,000 White teens experience teen pregnancy, whereas 21.3 out of 1,000 African American and 41.3 out of 1,000 Hispanic teens are faced with this challenge. According to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) for North Carolina, over 47% of high school students report having had sexual intercourse. That includes 57.5% of juniors and 63.9% of seniors. This demonstrates that many adolescents are confronted at some point during their teen years with choices about whether or not to have sex and, if they do, whether or not to use condoms and /or other contraceptives. Research shows that teens who begin having sex at an earlier age are less likely to use contraception and more likely to become pregnant and to become a parent. They are also more likely to accumulate a greater number of lifetime sexual partners. Of those that reported having had sex, only 60.8% used a condom the last time they had sex. In addition, 21.2% reported using drugs or alcohol before sex. d) Describe the population to be served or the area to benefit and indicate how you will identify beneficiaries. This project will primarily serve middle and high school aged teens living in Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Our Community Health Educator works with social workers and counselors in the schools and community partners to promote the program and receive direct referrals. Teen Voices and Smart Girls are available to any teen that meets the age requirements for the curricula. Interested teens complete an application and interview with the educator to demonstrate their interest in the program. When there are more applicants than spaces available, the educator gives priority to older teens that many age out of the program sooner and reserves a space the following year for teens that she cannot accommodate. In addition, we will implement parent workshops to benefit parents of teens, promoting this project with our community partners and among our teen program participants. Through our charlas /workshops our community health educator reaches a variety of women of reproductive age (10 -44) e) Who specifically will carry out the activities and in what location will they be carried out? Our programs will be carried out by two part-time community health educators. Lisa Garland has seven years of work and volunteer experience with at -risk youth. She is a former Planned Parenthood peer educator, has been working at PPSAT for three years, and is fluent in English and Spanish. The other educator position is vacant, but we are recruiting now and are looking for a bilingual (English/Spanish) applicant with a degree in a related field preferred, at least one year experience working with youth, and previous experience in Public Health. Main Application 1/21/2016 18:35:26 al /p1 Page 8 of 24