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Child Welfare

System-involved youth are at higher risk of unplanned pregnancy. We support child welfare, family court and juvenile justice institutions, leaders, and providers in all of their efforts to ensure that youth have the information, access, and tools they need to take charge of their own sexual health. Innovative efforts are under way in states and communities to ensure that more youth in foster care receive the support they need to achieve their goals.

Power to Decide provides training and technical assistance to more than 15 jurisdictions overseeing dependency and juvenile delinquency cases. In collaboration with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Power to Decide developed a toolkit, When You Decide: A Judge's Guide to Pregnancy Prevention Among Foster Youth Toolkit.

The resources provided ensure that youth receive the support, knowledge, and tools they need to make healthy long-term decisions about sex and contraception. The toolkit includes judicial practice designed by judges, including bench tools, and foundational information for a court-based collaborative initiative on reducing pregnancy among foster youth. The toolkit helps judges empower foster youth to make choices that delay pregnancy by giving judges and child welfare stakeholders the tools and strategies to support foster youth empowerment.

Contact us for more information about our child welfare work.

February 8, 2018
We sit down with Judge Swimmer to see how she and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are tackling teen pregnancy amongst foster youth.
Publication
10 Ways to Address Teen Pregnancy Prevention Among Youth in Foster Care
Publication
Judges play an important role in ensuring that youth get the support, knowledge, and tools needed to make healthy long-term decisions regarding sex and reproduction.
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