In 1996, the California Office of Family Planning launched the Male Involvement Program (MIP). This initiative provided local agencies with three years of funding to reduce teen pregnancy in their community through prevention education efforts focused on adolescent and young adult males. As funding was short-term, the institutionalization of male involvement became a high priority. Efforts to institutionalize services have taken many forms. Several communities leveraged additional monies to expand services to include adolescent and young adult males outside the scope of teen pregnancy prevention to ensure that MIP services remained once funding was discontinued. These expanded efforts have included the provision of reproductive health, clinical, employment, and social services. Local projects demonstrated that mobilizing a community to value asset-based, male-oriented prevention services was possible. MIP programs participated in and developed collaborative services that placed male involvement on the radar screen of other prevention and clinical providers. This process addressed the necessity for services that were responsive to young men's needs and expanded the network of providers serving males in the community. The institutionalization of male involvement efforts beyond the lead MIP agencies has allowed California’s Office of Family Planning to further impact the landscape of services to males, and indirectly, their partners, thus enhancing the likelihood of young men being able to avoid early-unintended fatherhood. The local MIP agencies were an essential catalyst for institutionalization in their community and throughout the state in placing young men on the map of teen pregnancy and comprehensive social services.
Learning Objectives: 1. Define institutionalization as it pertains to teen pregnancy prevention programming. 2. Describe the evolution of California’s Male Involvement Program and the role of institutionalization in expanding the provision of services to males in the community.
Keywords: Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Male Reproductive Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: California Office of Family Planning
Male Involvement Program
University of California, San Francisco
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.